The Atomium is Brussels’, if not Belgium’s most iconic landmark. And yes, the Metallic Sphere from last post is part of the Atomium, namely the centermost sphere. The Atomium consists of nine such spheres, each with a diameter of 18 meters and the tubes connecting them have a diameter of more than three meters. That is to say, it is a really large structure.

I visited the Atomium on the morning of New Year’s Day 2011, because after spending New Year’s Eve in Brussels, I still had some time until my train departed in the early afternoon. Just like the night before, the weather was quite cold and the city was covered by thick fog. I noticed that even though it was only around 11 in the morning, a long queue of tourists had already built up in front of the entrance. So I decided no to actually enter the Atomium but instead just walk around it. On a nearby parking lot I found a little, half-frozen lake that reflected the structure. Because of all the fog and the very dim sunlight, the entire scene looked almost black and white already, I performed only a very limited amount of post-processing on the picture.

This is one the few pictures that I was so happy with that I had it printed on canvas and put it up on the wall in my apartment. It reminds me of the calm quietness of that morning that marked the beginning of a year that would bring many great memories. I also made an iPhone sized version by cropping a part off at the bottom and adding some white space to the top so I can use it as a lock screen wallpaper. I think it looks pretty cool.

Maybe I’ll make another version that fits the iPhone 5 and release it as a free wallpaper. Although I heard that in some countries releasing photos of the Atomium is problematic because of copyright trolls. And of course I would first need an iPhone 5 to properly figure out the exact alignment and size.