Brussels is nice, but there isn't much to do and it isn't as visually stimulating as Bruges or Ghent. So we decided to bypass it... except to stop at Mini-Europe!
When I was 12, we went here with my parents on our bus tour of Europe. I feel like we went here, but I actually can't remember if it was Mini Europe I'm remembering, or perhaps Madurodam in the Netherlands (where I went when I was 15.) Other than a couple of blurry photos, I really don't remember anything about it. The only thing I remember about the city of Brussels is that there was a Godiva shop in the main square. That's it.
Welcome to Mini Europe!
Twenty eight countries are featured here at Mini Europe from Finland to Malta.
A mini version of the EU Headquarters sits in the shadow of the (real sized) Atomium sculpture at Mini Europe. Constructed for the 1958 World Expo in Belgium, this structure is in the shape of an 9 atoms of an iron (Fe) cell magnified 165 billion times.
Given we had just visited Copenhagen this past summer, Natalie enjoyed seeing the little boats float around the Danish waters. In the middle, in the reflection of the buildings is a little statue of the Little Mermaid.
It's still hard to see her, but here you can see the Little Mermaid a little better.
If you go to Mini Europe, you have to pay very close attention to the scenes they depict. Here, the workers in Stockholm are working on the utilities underground.
This wasn't even our first "Hey! We went there!" moment - but this was the Suomenlinna fortress in Helsinki.
The Riga Freedom Monument had been removed (the bottom left are all that remains) and I don't recall there being anything from Estonia, which other websites say they were supposed to show the old walls of Tallinn. So of all of the Baltic states, they only showed parts of Vilnius, Lithuania as well as the Baltic Way, which you might recall was when 2 million people joined hands from Vilnius to Riga to Tallinn to show solidarity among people of these three countries in the face of the Soviet Union.
Like I said, you really must pay attention to the little scenes they depict in each of the cities throughout Mini Europe. Here, they're pulling out a car that has gone in the canal at the Curtius House which is in Leige. The funny part is that they change these scenes up with some frequency.
Although we didn't venture into the old town of Brussels on this trip, we did get to see a mini version of the famous Flower Carpet that is on display every two years in front of the real Grand Palace. It's almost always composed entirely of colored begonias.
And of course, it wouldn't be Belgium without a cute little scene where the masses are cheering on their King, Philippe and his wife Queen Mathilde.
Grant did a bit of reading on the Great War.
Related, there is a replica of Flanders Fields, where thousands and thousands of World War I dead are buried.
If you aren't familiar with the Christmas Truce during World War I, you should Google it! I loved this little reenactment of that peaceful moment in 1914 during the beginnings of a terrible war where both sides came out of the trenches and celebrated by shaking hands, singing carols, and exchanging sweets and cigarettes right in the middle of No Man's Land.
The Atomium looks really big up against the city of Ghent!
Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament! Oh forget it....
I just loved the mini protest the Londoners were having regarding Brexit. So true to real life.
I'm really glad my kids got to see this pretty mini version of Big Ben in the Elizabeth Tower. Because if you remember, it was completely covered in scaffolding when we were there!
Ah, a quaint little British town. It's actually Stratford Upon Avon, but what's with that massive waterfall?
The town of William Shakespeare, in miniature.
You could almost fool yourself into believing this was the real Eiffel Tower!
A mini version of the Arc de Triomphe (remember climbing those stairs? 284 of them!)
I thought this was Mount Vesuvius but it turns out something in England was really smoking!
You really need to spend some time here and check out the displays. They are so cute and really clever. Good thing the police are on the scene of this car fire!
They also had this cute game where you had to "run" in place to get the characters in the scene to move. In this scene, a thief had STOLEN the Mona Lisa and a police office was in hot pursuit!
Ah the famous steps of Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. Sadly, we won't get back to Paris to see the real thing this go-round and we didn't get to see them when we went in 2016, except hazily from the Eiffel Tower.
Where are the budget airlines here? I don't fly these airlines! I need Wizz! Air and Easy Jet and RyanAir!
In Portugal, they even had a jousting session (with real movement!) from the town of Guimarães, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage site for being a well preserved example of a medieval town.
Don't mind us, we are just over here with the black plague. How do I know? There is a plague doctor in the middle of the scene! And the guy on the far left is warning people to stay away. Meanwhile, the other guy on the left is pushing dead bodies out on a cart. Ew. This one's dark, folks.
This was kind of a sad rendition of the port city of Porto in Portugal. Like it was kind of an afterthought. Todd and I are going to Porto someday, that's a promise.
Another fun moving scene was of the archery contest, where some made a bulls eye and others put an arrow in the guy on the roof.
Please handsome knight-on-a-white-horse, come save me from the evil dragon!
The Monastery of El Escorial is in a suburb of Madrid, and many of Spain's kings and queens (among other relatives) are buried there.
Ah, the Plaza de Toros in Seville!
The matador manages to successfully avoid being gored by the bull!
Silly Grant pretends he is a reindeer coming out of a Christmas present.
I thought this one was one of the best there, because of how terrified I was when I went up to the top of the Christopher Columbus statue in Barcelona back in 2010. The thing SWAYS left and right, a LOT. It even looks like it's swaying here! (Or I'm just a terrible photographer, you decide...)
Meanwhile, the locals are protesting - Catalunya es Espana!
And we're on to Venice! Here we are at the St. Mark's Bell Tower.
The real Trevi Fountain in Rome has prettier water than this. And there are WAY more tourists.
Todd is concerned that Vesuvius is about to blow here. (And it really does - complete with smoke and everything!)
Piazza dei Miracoli or Cathedral Square in Pisa, with it's famous leaning tower.
Don't forget to look at the details! Here, Galileo is attempting an experiment that proved that the rate of descent of two objects with different masses is the same. So funny! I love that they have these little historic anecdotes built into the historic structures.
Lots of people from different eras are perusing St. Mark's Square in Venice as a (half sinking?) gondola floats on by.
St. Mark's Square, all of it.
Vicenza! Villa La Rotonda - what? How did Vicenza get a spot here at Mini Europe? Well, it's real name is Villa Almerico Capra Valmarana, but people call it "La Rotonda" because well... it has a rotunda! It was built in the late 1500s at the direction of a priest who had retired from the Vatican and had modeled his new home after the Pantheon in Rome.
Also interesting is that they have a real piece of the Berlin Wall.
The Berlin Wall and Brandenburg Gate were really impressive. Here, the wall still stands, but it's 1991 and people are standing on top of it, doing graffiti, and smashing holes in it.
I love that they have a replica of, "My God Help Me to Survive This Fatal Attraction" which is a very famous graffiti painting done on the Berlin Wall by Dmitri Vrubel. The "kiss" is between Leonid Brezhnev (the Soviet leader in the late 70s/early 80s) and Erich Honecker who was the leader of East Germany. Quite controversial, of course.
I never got to see the real Burg Eltz which isn't far from Koblenz, so I'm hoping this will suffice.
Prague! What I love about this is that if you haven't visited Prague and it's astronomical clock, you might not realize that it's very low to ground. Get close or be tall, if you want to see the real thing.
This one is hilarious. This is Porta Nigra in Trier, Germany - where the Romans are fighting. Which isn't funny on it's own because the Romans really WERE here in the oldest city in Germany, and construction started on this back in the second century AD. Superlatively, it is the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps!
But if you look closely... they're filming a movie here at the Porta Nigra! What? So funny!
Boy, did this one bring back memories. Szechenyi Baths in Budapest! WHAT? This is amazing! Someone please take me back to the day we were here, enjoying the warm baths in the summertime.
Mogoșoaia Palace in Romania (see Dracula in the doorway?) is another spot I didn't get to visit in real life. We hit 40 countries in our time in Europe and this entire day at Mini Europe only reminded me of all we did NOT get to see.
Oh but I did get to visit the Triple Bridge and the Church of the Annunciation in Ljubliana! Remember when it was so hot there and the kids went under the sprayers in Prešeren Square?
I love the mini version of the Triple Bridge in Ljubliana.
Melk Abbey in Austria is a place I never got to visit but it's VERY impressive.
Or at least it's impressive in the miniature world.
Natalie is ready to stomp some grapes and make me some wine!
Inside of the Rila Monestary in Bulgaria, which I really wanted to go to, but didn't get a chance to. (See what I mean? So many places I didn't get to visit.)
Viking ships and flying birds... what is this? Game of Thrones?
Natalie was really (?) excited to see the Acropolis.
Aaaaand not pass out. Like she almost did the time we saw the real thing. It was so, so hot in Greece that day. Yet Greece was her favorite country in Europe, particularly Mykonos.
Although the number of stars (12) don't symbolize anything in the EU circle, I like the coming-together of this photo. Europe (maybe minus Great Britain because of Brexit) is seemingly more united than the United States at times.
Here, the kids left virtual messages on virtual post it notes for a European Union turtle.
Natalie from Germany writes, "Love from Germany." And it includes a silly pic of her and her brother.
Then they wanted to have their picture taken with the post it note on the virtual wall.
Grant from Germany begs Great Britain to "Stay in Europe." Unfortunately, he would be overruled.
We had a little lunch at the cafe at Mini Europe before heading out on our trek down to Trier. I'm pretty sure the kids complained in this photo that we never took them to El Escorial in Madrid which is behind them (no, they didn't actually complain about that.) Todd and I have been there, though!
Chilly Bailey's saying goodbye to Mini Europe! Until next time, Mini Europe!
Walking back to the car across the bridge, two trains passed each other on the tracks beneath us.
Before we could get to Trier though, we HAD to make a stop at a super cool superlative - the Three Country Point! This is the point at which Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany all meet. Here, Todd is in Belgium, Natalie is in Germany and Grant is in the Netherlands.
And now it's my turn to be in a different country than my children.
All Bailey hands on the spot where Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany meet.
Looking back into Germany from the Three Country Point, or as it's written in German, the, "Drielandenpunt."
Natalie and Grant with the flags of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. But they're definitely standing in Germany!
There is a tall tower you can climb (we did not since the sun was setting) and see views from the Vaalserberg, the hill which the Three Country Point sits on. This hill is 322 meters above sea level, not counting the tower which is another 50 meters high.
Here I am, in my snow boots, with one foot in Germany and one foot in the Netherlands.
Lots of people find this superlative fun, and that makes me VERY happy.
The best part of this is that there is a secondary superlative happening here. This is also the highest point in the Netherlands! So they have this sign showing you direction and distance to other high points around the world.
This is a great little place, complete with a nice playground and obstacle course which everyone enjoyed.
Hop, climb, and don't fall!
Honestly, we were driving and weren't even drinking here. Why is this statue missing a hand?
It made me really sad when we arrived back in Germany for the FINAL time. The LAST TIME. Only days from this moment, we would be leaving for good. I knew I would love it here, but I didn't know how much I would love it. Enough to never want to leave.
We arrived in Trier pretty late, but we needed to get some dinner so we walked up the Neustraße to try to find something to eat.
How about that? Neustraße 38 was the residence of the Westfalen Family who were the inlaws of Karl Marx! Such great history in Trier. (Note to self, I need to go back.)
We found Pizzeria Villa Venezia and had a really good meal there. The kids must have thought something was funny!
On our way back from a big Italian (coincidental? Roman?) dinner, I saw this pretty manhole cover of Trier. Totally fitting this would be placed in front of me as the final one I would see.
Have you ever walked behind someone and thought... am I walking behind myself?
Because this is actually me! I think that girl and I had the same coat on!
We enjoyed our very brief time here in Trier and can't wait to go back. Someday.
When in Rome! Ahem... I mean, Trier. You must drink the wines of the Mosel Valley. Rieslings are the most popular. I spy a little eye through that Riesling!
While I drove home the next day, Todd took this REALLY awesome picture of the clouds in western Germany. I'm gonna sound as nerdy as I always have about cool clouds... but these were pretty awesome.
Until next time, Brussels and Trier! Honestly and for real... until next time!
