Visit of the Royal Greenhouses in Laeken (B) (April 27th, 2008)
Sunday April 27th was a beautiful, sunny day and as part of the
110th anniversary of my employer's presence in Belgium, a visit to the
Royal Greenhouses in Laeken was one of the excursions we were invited to.
These royal Belgian constructions, dating from 1873, became at their time
world famous together with the "Art-Nouveau" style. They can only be visited
3-4 weeks per year. More details can be found on the
official website of the Belgian monarchy.
After queuing for a while -unfortunately we were NOT alone there!-, the
visitor is impressed as well by the monumental greenhouse constructions as
by the flower & plants collections.
The 2,5 km (!) visitor's path starts winding through the many greenhouses;
the first images are showing a row of banana trees, hanging palm trees and
many extremely colorful and beautiful flowers.
Leaving the first greenhouses, you have to walk uphill through the enormous
and vast royal gardens, where you also get a good view on the greenhouse
constructions, showing eg. the royal crown on top one of the largest ones. A
very peculiar "finger-tree" does remind me at the scary movie from my
student times, "Poltergeist"....
At the point where you get a nice view on the Japanes tower and lake, a
remainder from the Brussels' Expo 1958, we are guided inside the greenhouses
again to start the way back to the entrance, but going downhill this
time.....
A visit to the the greenhouses are certainly worth spending an
afternoon, but in view of the high popularity, I would advise to select a
week day.......
