Photo from belgiumtaste.be

I have a soft spot for World’s Fair structures. Seattle has the Space Needle and Paris has the Eiffel Tower, but only Brussels has the Atomium. On a fine day I can see the 102-m tall ball-and-stick model of an iron crystal from our apartment, and it always makes me smile.

Photo by Musely

On Sunday I discovered that Adrian had made secret reservations as surprised me with dinner in the very top atom. The metro line by our door took us all the way out to the site of the 1958 World’s Fair in less than 30 minutes. They had closed the doors to the general public, and one had to be on a very short list to be permitted entrance. Our names were checked and then we were escorted to the elevator for a private ride to the top.

Photo from belgiumtaste.be

We were seated with a view over Mini-Europe, so we could look down at Big Ben and Mount Vesuvius while watching the Thalys on its way to Paris. Most items were circular including the candles and the menus. We were informed that there was a fixed-price menu, and we could choose any three items from the list. The waiter suggested a starter, main, and dessert, but he gave me permission to have one main and two desserts instead. Adrian had the white asparagus, cheese platter, and cheesecake. I chose the chicken risotto, four-layer mouse, and chocolate meringue.

We meandered over our meals, discussing our lives and our plans, and watching the sun slowly set over Belgium. The lights over Atomium were lit by the end of the night, and as we walked back to the metro station it seemed to twinkle at us in farewell.

Photo by Merdichesky

I still can’t believe it is possible for me to just pop off to Brussels for the afternoon. A few days ago, I spent the afternoon at the Cosutme and Lace Museum. Entry was 3 euros, but residents of Brussels have free entry, which is another incentive to buy a home in Brussels and not Leuven. The exhibition displayed the couture worn around the time of Expo 58, including many of Christian Dior’s creations. So many glamourous and intricate outfits, as well as some truly hideous wedding dresses. The rules of dress at the time were complex and highly regimented, and many of the hemlines had been repeatedly altered to suit the fashion of the season:

Image from brucity

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.

The Space Needle is my favourite structure in Seattle – a flying saucer soaring above the land. I have a soft spot for monuments built for a World’s Fair. This structure was built for the 1962 celebration – our apartment was originally a hotel built for the same event. Like Smith Tower before it, when it was built it was the tallest structure west of the Mississippi.

I can see it peeking over the ridge when I’m working at my bench, and I ride towards it on my journey home on my bicycle. If I catch the bus, I see it silhouetted against the sunset, lit up from below.

For my birthday, Adrian took me out for dinner at the revolving restaurant SkyCity – a trip that took 43 seconds from the base. As we revolved 360 degrees every forty-seven minutes, we watched the sun set behind the mountains and the ferries glide across Puget Sound.

I had the Copper River salmon, and it was delicious. The best bit, however, was the signature dessert – the Lunar Orbiter. A chocolate ice-cream sunday, suspended over a broth of steaming dry ice, it appeared to leap off the table and into the future.

There’s a Wheedle on the Needle
I know just what you’re thinking
But if you look up late at night
You’ll see his red nose blinking

~Stephen Cosgrove