Arrival in Zaventem airport around 2 PM, and transfer to the Holiday Inn in Diegem, near the airport

At 4 PM, people got together in the car, and a general overview tour was made through Brussels. We passed NATO headquarters, European Community district, General Montgommery's Statue, the Cinquantenaire monument build in 1880 for the 50th anniversary of Belgium, through the business district of the Wetstraat. We made our first stop in front of the Royal palace. We walked into central park, where we had our first Belgian beer under the trees in the open air. Before going back to our car, we passed the embassies of the US and the UK, and admired the row of rich houses, build about 200 years ago around the park.

Huge front portch of Palace of Justice

We passed the statue of "Godfried van Bouillon", leader of the first crusade, before we saw the museum row, and the "Zavel-church", to arrive at the huge dominant building of the Justice palace, where we walked around and had a view above down-town Brussels.

The Justice Palace was built by King Leopold II, who redesigned the center of Brussels to make it a "world-city". This same king owned Congo before he donated it to Belgium as a colony.

KAPELLE-CHURCH.

Standing on the hill of the Justice Palace, several landmarks were pointed out. Back in the car, and a stop in the Marollen quarter at the "Kapelle-church". The church closes at 5 PM, so we were to late to enter. 

Except for the west tower which was completed in 1699, the Brabant Gothic church, on the northern edge of the Marolles dates from the
13 th--15 th c.The church is best known as the burial place of Pieter Breugel the Elder whose tomb can be seen in the fourth chapel along on the right from the main door. The black marble memorial with a painting by Rubens (now a copy) was erected by the artist's younger son Jan, known as "Velvet".

The Marollen were already to quiet to be interesting, and some of us fell the jetlag very bad, so we decided to drive through Brussels to the Heysel-area, where we had a typical dinner with mussels and a good glass of Belgian Pils. Driving through Brussels, we were surprised to see so many bars (called 'cafe's') and restaurants. You find them almost on every corner of the street.

The Heysel area is the area where the 1958 world exhibition was held. The most important and remaining landmark is the Atomium.

ATOMIUM

The Atomium. Designed by the architect Andre Waterkeyn for the 1958 Brussels World Exhibition, the 102m/326 ft-high steel and aluminium structure represents a molecule of iron magnified 165 million times. The spheres are used for the presentation of a show called "Biogenium" about the developments in science and medicine over the last forty years. The topmost sphere contains a viewing platform which offers an excellent panorama of Brussels.

Today you find near the Atomium also the largest cinema-complex (Kinepolis) of the world (27 screens + 1 Imax), the national sports-stadium, the open-air mini Europe exhibition featuring the most important landmarks of all European nations perfectly rebuild in miniature version, and several bars and restaurants build in a mediaeval architectural style. 

We were in bed before 9 PM.

Day II