It’s coming down to the line, and we still haven’t decided on our new home. One major mark against Belgium is its weather. If we look month by month, and compare the average temperature highs, lows, as well as the days with less than 0.1 mm rain, and the blue sky index (sunny=100, overcast =0), Montreal wins on most counts, apart from the appalling lows during winter:

It is amusing to think that for most of my life I have lived in Canberra, which according to Australian consensus, has terrible weather, and the “harsh climate” is often given as a reason for moving up north. Yet compared to Montreal, it is a paradise of sun and warmth (Canberra data shifted 6 months for comparison):

As a scientist, I make most of my judgements with numbers. I do experiments, collate the data, and conduct statistical analyses – t-tests, ANOVA, regressions – I can do them all. If it can be quantified, I will try to summarise it, graph it, compare it. If only the Euclidian distance of Brussels and Montreal could be calculated, and a definite number could be calculated. 

Instead, we are left with pros and cons. Is it better to have sunny freezing days or warmer gloomy days? Lower wages in the center of Europe or higher wages on the other side of the Atlantic? English as an official language that seems unwanted or as an unofficial language that seems embraced? A costly plain apartment that is one hour from Paris, or a beautiful Victorian stone townhouse that we could pay off in five years? Living next to Brussels Central Station but working a long train ride away, or living in the tranquility of Plateau and working a short bicycle ride away? Superb education and cheap childcare in a bilingual city, or very good education and costly childcare in the capital of the European Commission? Biodome or Atomium?

How are we supposed to answer these questions?

I love revisiting the site of old World Fairs, and Brussels hosted two great ones in 1935 and 1958. They built the Palais de Expositions for the 1935 expo, but covered the whole building with cloth for the 1958 event held on the same site because they felt that its art deco appearance was not futuristic enough.

The first World’s Fair after World War II occurred 13 years after the war, and was in Belgium in 1958. The theme was “technology for the progress of humankind”. The centerpiece of the expo was Atomium (atom plus aluminium). An iron crystal with nine atoms, magnified 165 billion times, and towering 105 metres above the ground, it is an imposing and spectacular structure. It took two years of a team of construction-acrobats to assemble, working day and night, rain and snow, with no helmets or harnesses. There were no deaths during its construction, only one broken leg.

Each atom is joined by a powered escalator, that at 39 metres were the longest in Europe in 1958, and the trip to the top atom is via what was the fastest lift in the world, designed by Schindler to travel 5 metres per second. One of the spheres is reserved for children between the ages of 6-12 years who can hire it overnight, and fall asleep inside the oxygen of water molecules that descend from the ceiling like rain. They still sell the same treats today at the Polka Dot Cafe that existed fifty years ago – the Cha Cha biscuit and Dessert 58.

The 186 days of the expo were not a success, they were a triumph. Over 41 million people visited the Worlds Fair, and at night they could look up and see the lights twinkling around each sphere of the Atomium, like electrons orbiting their nuclei. Walt Disney was in Brussels working on Peter Pan, and he was saddened that the expo was to disappear at the end of September. This inspired him to built the EPCOT center and theme parks that would never be torn down.

Like the Eiffel tower, the Atomium was intended to be a temporary structure. As such, its outer spheres were coated with aluminium sheets that were only 1.2 mm thick, which was showing its age by 2004. For its fiftieth birthday, the Atomium was given a complete makeover. It was completely stripped down to its skeleton, and then the aluminium and fiberglass spheres replaced with galvanized and stainless steel. Today, this structure should correctly be called Atosteel, as no trace of aluminium remains today.

I learnt today that Belgium is half the size of Tasmania, which explains why I could make a day trip to Luxembourg, which required travelling across and back two thirds of Belgium. Still, the four hour train trip each way was very relaxing, with time to nap, eat, write postcards, and watch the landscape alternate between delightful towns with their church spires and cows relaxing on green pastures.

After disembarking, I bought a Luxembourg card which entitled me to free public transport and free entry to all the museums. A great deal I thought, until I discovered that the Old Town was an easy ten minute walk away, the museums were closed on Mondays, and I had missed the guided tour. Determined to get my euro’s worth, I caught the bus in, which took twenty minutes, due to all the traffic.

The streets were all packed with people, as it was market day, which in Luxembourg seems to consist more of leather handbags and fur coats than of fruits and vegetables. I started my explorations down in the UNESCO World Heritage Casemates. After the Treaty of London, most Count Seigfried’s 963 CE fortifications were razed, but the underground passages remain. Surprisingly, they are full of sunlight, as they often open up into the cliffs that surround the city, giving spectacular views of the Grund in the valley below.

I then walked across the Chemin dela Coniche, which is called Europe’s most beautiful balcony, as it winds along the edge of the cliff tops above Petrusse Valley. The black spires of the Cathedrale Notre Dame dominate the skyline of the old town, and I found the inside also very beautiful, even if the Lonely Planet calls it “an ugly hotchpotch of progressive renovations”. The stained-glass windows are bright and intricate, the columns decorated with delicate carvings, and the ceiling filled with grand arches.

My recent explorations of Europe have emboldened me to be able to enter church buildings, and not feel too intimidated as a non-believer. I now realise that these churches were designed to be overpowering and intimidating to everyone, and now I am able to enter them, while still respecting their status as an important monument of history, art, and architecture. Just outside the church, a congregation of gargoyles seemed to mock those passing by.

My last stop was a visit at the free museum of the headquarters of Luxembourg’s oldest bank – the Banque et Caisse d’pargne de l’Etat. It was an interesting look behinds the scenes of money in the Grand Duchy – I could walk inside a bank vault, and see the original sketches for some of the bank notes in the early 1900′s. My favourite was one proudly depicting dozens of factory chimneys energetically pumping huge clouds of smoke into the sky, as a symbol of the countries growing industrial power.

We are off to take a look at Belgium in more detail. Adrian will see the universities and meet potential colleagues, and I have interviews with a spouse placement company and will look at houses and schools. We will also have the chance to see some of the surrounding countries. Our flight leaves in four hours, so off we go…