From Ypres to Waterloo

The horse drawn carriage taking people to and from Hougoumont

Having persuaded grumpy Brian that we would catch up with Freddie in Brussels on our way back we decided to head to Waterloo instead. If the First World War was 102 years ago, the battle of Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleon was 102 years before that.

It was as we were stopped at a service station for a comfort break, and for Brian to clean a dogs comfort break from his shoe, and the footwell, and the pedals that Doris (the sat nav) announced we were going into a low emission zone. 

The man made Butte de Lion floodlit at night with the moon above

Now we’ve got stickers for France and Germany, but nowhere else. Fortunately she can be directed to avoid these areas and it didn’t add much time but I thought I’d better do a little internet search. Hmmm, if we’d got into the campsite we wanted in Brussels for our walking tour with Freddie it would have cost us a €350 fine for not having applied for the LEZ. I think, though all the information I could find seemed to be for trucks up to 3.5 tons and we are over that which I assume would make us worse not better! It’s only money, but it would have been jolly irritating!

Jackie talking to the uniformed Belgian about doing his talk in English

We arrived at the Waterloo visitor centre in the rain, tomorrow was going to be clear and Thursday to Sunday although your entrance ticket is €2 more there are animations or as we would call them, interactive exhibits, with real people! We decided to stay overnight in the adjoining carpark though Doris was set to explode she thought the whole of the carpark had a weight limit of 3.5 tons, don’t know what the buses or the car transporter that turned up later weigh, but I’m sure it’s more than us! The only downside was the road noise, we were right by a motorway, but it’s amazing what you get used to. (50°40'57.8"N 4°24'11.0"E)

The 100 year old Panorama building with Butte de Lion behind

We were up at the visitor centre bright and early, almost first in at 09.30, we popped back to Ted for lunch, but didn’t finally leave till after 17.00. Good value for money then! The museum was interesting, though we had to have two goes at it, and even then didn’t listen to everything the audio guide wanted to tell us about every piece of clothing and every picture. The 4D movie was very good, I assume the 4th dimension was the way the place shook as the cavalry galloped towards, and over us!

Priming the cannon ready to fire. It was very loud!

Outside we did the normal activities, the panorama, a 360 degree 110m long diorama and the Butte du Lion, a big man made mound with a huge bronze lion on it built to commemorate where Prince William of Orange, son of the king of the Netherlands was injured. Then the ‘special activities’. We managed a special personalised tour of ‘The last cavalry charge’ a guy in Belgian uniform telling all about his part in the battle. It should have been in Dutch, but no Dutch people turned up so he did it in English just for us. When we went to watch the cannon shot, that should have been in French, someone did it in French, but he did it in English for us and another couple. To be so talented that you can switch between languages like that. Very impressive.

Hougoumont Farm, where the battle commenced

We then walked the 20 minutes to Hougoumont Farm, that had been fiercely attacked and defended all the day of the battle. Wellington had even said, “if I die, keep Hougoumont”. We are not quite sure of the strategic importance of this, and nor were the very irritating (more of them later) people who joined us on the 16.00 guided tour. However, the farmhouse had been kept, though mostly burnt down, so there was actually not that much to see, except for another interesting movie about “the battle within a battle “ which finished in time for us to get the horse drawn carriage back to the main area.

Inside Hougoumont Farm and the gates that were stormed by the French and forced open allowing them in. The Coldstream Guards fought them back managing to close the gates killing all the French who had got in except for a drummer boy. The farm represented the fortified edge of Wellingtons right flank and was critical to hold. Intense fighting happened here all day, but the Coldstream Guards held on despite it being almost burnt down. The closing of the gates was the thing Wellington said was critical to winning the battle

Here's a painting showing the closing of the gates

We went in for our second bite of the museum before our 16.00 guided tour by an interesting local American. I don’t think he was a complete history buff, but he’d learnt his stuff about the maps he was to talk about explaining Napoleons escape from Elbe, the days leading up to the battle and the day of the battle. The poor man had to work very hard, not with us, but with an ‘irritating’ group from Richmond. We couldn’t work out the group dynamics or why they were there, but one of their party, thought he knew lots about everything and insisted on talking about all sorts of completely irrelevant things. He was very hard work, but at 17.15 when we finished a glass of wine was already calling!

Here's a plan of the battle. Wellingtons troops in red, French troops in blue, Prussian troops in green

Another noisy night in the carpark, with lorries, car transporters and dog walkers, before we set off to Rekem. Only picked as it was in our parking spot book, although it has no services it is peaceful and has a fabulous outlook onto a canal (50°55'18.3"N 5°42'17.7"E). We had a little walk around a pretty town, visited the tourist information and enjoyed a much quieter night than the previous two. Today, Saturday, we decided to get the bikes out, first time in six months, and cycle to Maastricht. While in Bristol we went to Wales for the day, so while in Belgium why not go to Holland for the day?

Here's a plan using Google Maps. Wellington had 68,000 troops, of which only 25,000 were British, Napoleon had 73,000 and Blucher 50,000. Napoleons plan was to divide the British from the Prussians before they could combine and overwhelm his numbers. He attacked Bluchers troops on 17th June at Ligny and saw them retreat. Believing they were out of the battle he advanced on Wellingtons troops, starting with his right flank at Hougoumont on 18th June but was held back all day. He then attacked Wellingtons centre believing it was lightly guarded but on coming up the hill was confronted by infantry hiding over the ridge and a huge force waiting behind. Hand to hand fighting occurred into late afternoon combined with an assault on Wellingtons left flank which almost succeeded. Fortunately Bluchers troops appeared and with their force overcame Napoleans force who ran away. Napolean abdicated 4 days later and was send to St Helena, a small island in the middle of the Atlantic, where he died 6 years later. As Wellington said, it was a close run thing and it was only the arrival of Bluchers troops that won the day. How strange it is that at Waterloo it was the British allied with the Prussians (which largely became Germany) against the French. 100 years later it was the British and French against Germany (a very simplified analysis, you you know what I mean)

Our campsite at Rekem near the Dutch border

Google maps said it would take half an hour, it took us an hour, but we stopped at every junction to route check, and stopped for deer being fed bread, tiny little ponies, horses and a cat.... It didn’t take us that long to get back!

We saw the main sights, we think, very impressive churches, the market, the tower to look over the town and the river. We had some chips, recommended in the rough guide, the queue was huge, and they were, good, double fried, but they were just chips. Followed by a waffle with Nutella. Brian wanted churros, but I wouldn’t let him, we were in Holland after all. Tasted pretty much the same. Back just as three spots of rain hit, do we go to Aldi or wait? We’ll go, only really for bread and yogurt, but tomorrow is Sunday, places still shut. We weren’t in long, but came out and it appeared to have poured down while we were inside. Timing or what?

There's a quite impressive castle in Rekem

And an interesting town gate that dates from the 16th century

A nice Saturday bike ride along properly prepared cycle tracks from our site in Belgium to Maastricht in Netherlands

First stop was to feed the deer

We saw some donkeys in a field (that was actually yesterday)

And some horses running along free by the Maas river that separates Belgium from Netherlands

The market square in Maastricht

The old town walls still standing in places

Inside the gloomy but very atmospheric Onze Lieve Vrouwebasiliek basilica-church

The St Servaasbasiliek balilica that dates back to 1000AD and, left the Gothic church of St Janskerk, who tower we climbed

View from the top of the St Janskerk tower, the basilica below. 219 narrow spiral steps. Interesting when you met people coming the other way!

Lunch chips at The Reitz. The queue gives an idea of how popular it is and they were scrummy, being twice cooked so very crunchy. It was in our Lonely Planet guide as the place to go

We were told to go here by the lady in Tourist Information. Its an old church but now a bookshop

Another picture inside the bookshop. Most people posed on this little platform, but I thought this shot was better from the other side, so I told Jackie to wait there while I went round and up the other side

A photo that could be anywhere. Its actually the River Maas thats separates Belgium from the Netherlands and has many wild geese and some cows paddling in the river. I just quite liked it and stopped on the cycle back.

A final picture. This is our wardrobe in Big Ted. We have a 15l water bottle that we use for drinking water (we have 120l in a tank for all other water - and some people drink that, we probably could but prefer to fill a separate carrier). We bought a 10l carton of red wine and that is now sitting alongside the water. So, we open the wardrobe to take out clothes or, if we're having a drink which one shall we go for, water or wine? Now, let me think....