Brussels is the capital of the European Union. The EU has a headquarters in town but we were not interested in visiting it. Instead, we went to a (sort of) monument to the Union called Mini-Europe.
The park has 1:25 scale models of famous places from the EU countries. The detail is rather incredible and it enables visitors to relive memories of visiting certain places, plan to visit others, and take a trip through most of Europe in one afternoon. Several of the models have an interactive bit, normally a button (at child height) to push. Lots of the buttons play national anthems; some make boats go around; one makes the bull fighters' ring erupt with cheers; another makes Mt. Vesuvius erupt! The kids loved visiting.
I went a little crazy taking photos at Mini-Europe (nearly 100), so I will just present some highlights of the park in this post. If you want to see the whole collection, visit my photo gallery here.
We visited some places we've already seen.
We also saw some spots we still haven't gone to but hope to visit soon.
Surprisingly, the one real thing in the park is a piece of the Berlin Wall which was on display right behind the model of the Brandenburg Gate.
In addition to the models, the park has a couple of "photo ops" where visitors can put themselves in the shoes of icons from other countries.
One exciting thing we saw was the soon-to-be-installed Croatian model, the St. Markus Church from Zagreb. Actually, the sign on the model said it would be installed July 1, so it is probably already on the display.
Remember you can go here to see the rest of the models.
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| Mini-Europe entrance |
The park has 1:25 scale models of famous places from the EU countries. The detail is rather incredible and it enables visitors to relive memories of visiting certain places, plan to visit others, and take a trip through most of Europe in one afternoon. Several of the models have an interactive bit, normally a button (at child height) to push. Lots of the buttons play national anthems; some make boats go around; one makes the bull fighters' ring erupt with cheers; another makes Mt. Vesuvius erupt! The kids loved visiting.
I went a little crazy taking photos at Mini-Europe (nearly 100), so I will just present some highlights of the park in this post. If you want to see the whole collection, visit my photo gallery here.
We visited some places we've already seen.
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| The ferry and J! |
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| Sacre-Coeur, Paris, France |
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| Sienna Town Square (okay, I visited that years ago before the family) |
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| Astronomical Clock, Prague, Czech Republic |
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| Szechenyi Baths in Budapest, Hungary (okay, actually it was just Uncle Nate who went here) |
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| Brussels' Grand Place |
We also saw some spots we still haven't gone to but hope to visit soon.
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| Houses of Parliament, London, England |
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| Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy |
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| Detail from the tower! |
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| Acropolis, Greece |
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| Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany |
Surprisingly, the one real thing in the park is a piece of the Berlin Wall which was on display right behind the model of the Brandenburg Gate.
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| Real Berlin Wall |
In addition to the models, the park has a couple of "photo ops" where visitors can put themselves in the shoes of icons from other countries.
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| L, Viking Warrior |
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| J, British Palace Guard |
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| Literally in the shoes of the Dutch |
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| Auntie R |
One exciting thing we saw was the soon-to-be-installed Croatian model, the St. Markus Church from Zagreb. Actually, the sign on the model said it would be installed July 1, so it is probably already on the display.
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| St. Mark's Church, Zagreb, Croatia |
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| St. Mark's Church, Zagreb, Croatia |
Remember you can go here to see the rest of the models.
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