Waterloo

I was not aware that the French harried the English rearguard as they retreated from Quatre Bras and there was quite a fierce action at the rear of the column as the English retreated to Waterloo. By the time the rear guard reached the ridge at Mont St Gean just outside the town of Waterloo they were exhausted and very glad to have reached their own lines. Napoleon's army was also exhausted with the Emperor in a rage having found Marshall Ney lounging at Quatre Bra and having had to take command himself as the army pressed hard at Wellington's heels - so both army's rested in the pouring rain waiting to do battle the following day.

There is not much more I can really add to your history lesson dear friends as you all know the battle was a bloody one lasting about 10 hours and in the end the arrival of the Prussians was the final nail in Napoleon's coffin and his army was routed and peace reigned in Europe for the next 100 years.

The Richards' family fortified by an amazing French meal the night before still rose early and after a quick breakfast set off to Waterloo. There is a large visitor's centre, an enormous earth mound where the Belgian Lion rests at the top as a monument to the Belgian contribution to the battle, a panorama of the battlefield and a small cinema showing some scenes from the movie Waterloo. We arrived at about 9.30am and you will be relieved to here that we found no 'ladies of the night' in the car park. In fact it was rather quiet, only a handful of cars and some re-enactors with a French cannon setting up in the garden.

We made our way into the tourist centre and bought tickets for the Panorama and the Lion mound, having seen the film of waterloo a zillion times, including just before we left for our trip, we felt no need to see clips of it again.

A quick tour around the gift shop was in order, as Mike and Andrew had holes burning in their pockets ... but what a disappointment! I have heard the tales before that the tourist centre made it look like Napoleon won the battle, but if I am honest I wouldn't agree with that ... it was in fact worse ... the British contingent of the allies were invisible. There weren't even any guide books in English ... what's that all about?

We checked out  the panorama painting of the battlefield which was quite incredible but showed it's age and reminded us of a similar project at Gettysburg, after a coffee we then made our way up the steep steps to the Lion Mound which gave you a fantastic view of the battlefield, which amazingly still remains quite intact and you can get a good idea of how it was nearly 200 years ago now.

The tourists were staring to pack in now and it took us an age  to get down the steps to escape the visitor complex. We walked to the farm at Hougoumont and what a sad sight it was, now nearly derelict you can no longer go into the grounds to see the monuments, in fact so many of the monuments are now roped off and you can not gain access. There is building work going on for a larger visitor's centre, no doubt for the celebrations in 2015 but the whole area, just like Belgium as a whole, is shabby and unkempt.

After checking out more of the ridge we headed in the car to an artisan bakery that Mike had tried on a previous visit for a late lunch but imagine his horror when he discovered that it was now just a bakery and that the cafe was no more. So rather sullenly he took us back along the road  to waterloo and we found a decent Bistro for a light lunch. 

We then headed to the Wellington Museum which gave a much more balanced view of the British action on the battlefield and was in fact Wellington's headquarters and where Gordon died of his wounds and Lord Uxbridge had his leg amputated. Well worth a visit. This was then followed by a whistle stop tour of the French lines and the Prussian arrival, by which I was exhausted, shuffling my feet about in the dust and looking longingly in the direction of the car.

By 6pm we had finished and headed back to our hotel for a final meal at our favourite French restaurant with the long drive north ahead of us tomorrow.

The break has been a good one on the whole. Great fun being together and learning about another battlefield, superb food and wine and the best of weather. Belgium, however, is a disappointment, we have travelled more of it on this visit, where previously we have stayed in one spot, normally exploring on foot, and I will not be rushing back. The road network is poorly kept, the towns tend not to be friendly to either cars or tourists, the people are not particularly friendly and Europe is very expensive to visit. It will be a challenge for us to decide our next venture, but for us it will not be here ... at least not for a few years yet.