Mini Europe, Big Fun

We had so much fun at the Atomium a few weeks ago that we decided to return the next weekend. This time we came to see Mini Europe and we brought reinforcements. Yes, the whole gang was there: me, Cassandra, Matt, and the Daves (Balfour and O’Neill as they’re known separately). And another solid outing was had. Before I get to the models, first some background. At Mini-Europe, every member state of the EU gets a few models (usually three or four) showcasing cultural symbols in miniature. This is usually done through landmarks—France gets the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame and Italy gets the Tower of Pisa and the Coliseum—but not always. In fact there were a couple of companies and products showcased. There was an oil rig from Total (Europe’s top fuel distributor and a sponsor of Mini Europe), as well as the Chunnel (which delighted me), the Thalys (a French high speed train company), the Dover fairy and European air lines (Brussels Airlines, Air France, KLM, etc).


But even before seeing the models, it was painfully obvious what the real purpose of Mini Europe was: propaganda. It’s another effort by the European Union to make Europeans identify with the EU (and to make the kiddies think Europe is great fun; the average age of other Mini-Europe-goers was under 12). This propaganda purpose is demonstrated early on—the first model is Berlaymont (the Commission headquarters in Brussels) and the second is the home of Jean Monnet, another founding father of the EU. Also, the booklet accompanying the tour begins with a message from the Commission President and the head of the European Parliament and the first pages tell of the European values, which include, interestingly enough “democracy, the spirit of adventure, the spirit of enterprise, technology, cultural influence, the Christian heritage (emphasis is my own), social thinking and the “new” value of “secularism and multiculturalism.” I could write a post on this statement alone, but I will refrain for now.

Getting back to the models. They were all done really well and the attention to detail was astonishing: Germany’s Brandenburg Gate display had a portion of the Berlin Wall collapse every 30 seconds; little Eurostar trains passed through the Channel Tunnel; and a special sidewalk shook every time the volcano Vesuvius erupted. But it was sad to see that while older EU states like Italy and Spain or even the Scandinavian countries had five or six models, the ten new Eastern European states usually got one model each. Says a lot about their place in the Union.


The displays on a whole were pretty great. What can I say? I like miniatures. You can go to your music festivals, your museums or foreign lands, but give me a solidly made replica of historical and cultural landmarks and I’m sold. There’s nothing wrong with a model of the Eiffel Tower that is 0.1 per cent of its original size. It just means you can see it clearly and it’ll fit in the frame of my camera easier. In fact, there’s something oddly comforting about a model of the Big Ben that you could step on.
As you can imagine, the idea of having the landmarks of Europe in miniature provided ample opportunity for numerous “squishing” photos: leaning on the leaning Tower of Pisa; resting a hand on Big Ben or the British Parliament buildings; stomping on the Brandenburg gate and what not. I can’t say we avoided all of them, but I think we did a good job of breathing new life into old favourites.

All in all, it was a great. However, I must lodge a complaint. It’s about the Portugal exhibit. Many countries had more than one model and Portugal had five. A few from Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve. For those of you who don’t know (and I’m sure it’s a small minority), I’m from the Algarve area in Portugal. I’ve vacationed there pretty consistently since I was 12. I know what it looks like. And it looks nothing like this.

I think they were attempting to replicate Lagos or Sagres which has huge cliffs with algae, but they missed. Horribly and quite publicly. I was shocked when I saw it and (you can ask Cassandra, she’ll vouch for me) I bitched about its horrendous un-likeliness for at least three countries afterward. I mean, what the heck is that supposed to be? Algae? Blue? It looks horrible. But I can’t let that ruin an otherwise glorious day.