I did similar threads for London and Paris, so why not Brussels as well?

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0863.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0653.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0697.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0837.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0767.jpg

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http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0557.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0817.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0656.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0688.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0776.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0708.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0743.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0666.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0686.jpg

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http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0565.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0854.jpg

More photos in my Brussels gallery at : http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels.htm

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0908.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0906.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/brussels/20050419/RIMG0902.jpg

Belgium's Mannekin Pis drips for prostate awareness

BRUSSELS, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - The usual free-flowing stream coming from Belgium's Manneken Pis, a bronze boy that pees into a fountain in central Brussels, slowed to a drip Friday to raise awareness about prostate cancer.

For passers-by in the Belgian and European capital on what was European prostate awareness day, a banner was set up alongside marked: "Having trouble urinating? Get your prostate checked in time."

The European Commission, for its part, also expressed concern at the low number of men who have their prostate checked as they get older, as well as undergo tests for colorectal cancer.

According to a Eurobarometer survey published Friday, only eight percent of men have tests to detect cancer of the prostate, while 13 percent get checked for colorectal cancer.

"Men should consult their doctors about regular screenings. The check-up data for these two types of cancer are alarming," EU Health Commissioner Markus Kyprianou said in a statement.

Belgium celebrates 50 years of the Atomium

BRUSSELS, April 17, 2008 (AFP) - Modern-day Belgium, riven by intercommunal rows and uncertainty over globalisation, on Thursday began a nostalgic look back at the futuristic vision offered by the 1958 Brussels Expo and its landmark Atomium.

The first major post-World War II world's fair "Expo 58" attracted 41 million visitors from around the world between April 17 and October 19, 1958 towards the Heysel plateau to the north of the Belgian capital.

With the Cold War at freezing point and with decolonisation heating up, the expo offered its visitors a hint of the three astonishing decades of economic growth and societal change ahead.

The display pavilions were designed by 51 nations and major companies including an outstanding example designed for Philips by pioneering French architect Le Corbusier.

The crowds exactly 50 years ago also got a peak at the nascent space age, with a replica of the Soviet Union's Sputnik satellite, the first piece of man-made space hardware.

The Americans, a decade away from putting a man on the moon, vaunted "the American Way of Life" in their exhibition, complete with the new phenomenons of rock n'roll and colour television as well as the already well-established Coca Cola.

Belgians were also discovering the joys of fast food, with the sale of thousands of litres of beer and cornets of French fries in the grounds of a recreated medieval village.

"You could see Dali paintings in the Spanish pavilion and smoke flat Russian cigarettes, very unusual, it was great," one 18-year-old visitor to the 1958 exhibition recalled on the 2008 website.

Not all was modernity at the original exhibition. The land of the young King Baudouin also proudly presented "his" Belgian Congo which would gain its independence two years later.

Belgium of the late 1950s was also yet to see the kind of political quarrelling between its Dutch-speaking northern Flemish and francophone southern Walloon communities which the country suffers from today.

However the seeds were already apparent with the Flemish press complaining of the predominance of the French language at the Expo.

The French president of the day Rene Coty visited a pavilion dedicated to the glories of France in the fifties; Citroen cars, nuclear power, coal-mining and French Algeria.

However among the 148 separate exhibitions the biggest, the most impressive and the most enduring was the Atomium, over 100 metres high which was not planned to last any longer than the six-month world's fair but after a recent facelift dominates the landscape to the north of Brussels to this day.

Now a national symbol, along with the Manneken Pis statue, the Atomium consists of nine large spheres linked by 20 tubes, representing a metal crystal magnified 165 billion times.

To mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary, the red, yellow and black striped Belgian flag has once again been hoisted to the top of the Atomium, with the help of an army helicopter.

The Atomium will host special exhibitions until October and there will be a "Pavilion of temporary Happiness" -- built with 40,000 drinks crates -- looking back via film shows and exhibitions at the Expo 58 vision of permanent utopia against the 50 years that have passed since.

In a rather downbeat fashion, the official website describes the pavilion's aim as "questioning, 50 years later, the ideas of progress, universalism and happiness underlying the world's fairs of the time".

Nostalgia will also be evoked through two large 50s style flea markets, "brocantes", organised in April and August.

The festivities were to get underway Thursday evening with a grand firework display at the Atomium 50 years to the day after the original Expo 58 opening.

Manneken Pis turns Georgian for a day
16 August 2008
Agence France Presse

With conflict raging back home, Georgians in Belgium expressed their patriotism Saturday by dressing up Manneken Pis, one of Brussels' best-loved landmarks, in Georgian national costume.

The little bronze statue of a curly-haired boy urinating -- seen by countless tourists every day -- was done up in red-and-white pants and shirt, topped with a traditional Georgian bonnet.

"For us, the national costume is very important," a Georgian explained to Belgium's French-language RTBF public television. "To wear it in the days of the Russian Empire was to defy authority."

The current French presidency of the Brussels-based European Union has been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to broker an end to fighting between Russia and Georgia that erupted late last week.

The Friends of Manneken Pis, which oversees the cheeky statuette and keeps a collection of the various outfits it has worn over the years, approved the Georgians' gesture.

A demonstration in solidarity with Georgia was meanwhile scheduled to take place Saturday outside the Bourse, a few minutes' stroll from Manneken Pis.

Great pictures! I've been in Brussels in 2000, it's a lovely city!