Saturday 30th July

Saturday 30^th July – Waterloo

It is never the best of nights when one sleeps in a car park but it was uneventful nevertheless.  Sadly the day was overcast and it drissled on and off throughout.  However it was a great day and we loved it.  The battlefield is in much the same state as it was in 1815 and we could imagine most of the battle as it would have played out.  We waited for our tour guide (Dad!) who was flying in from London and so we headed off to the museum and up the Butte De Lion to have a good look at the battlefield.  The Butte is a huge mound built c.10 yrs after the battle to commemorate the Prince of Orange.  It has 226 steps and had a great view of the battlefield.  We then went into the museum before meeting Dad.

the boys on the Butte de Lion overlooking the battlefield

We set off to the first of four stands and spent a good four hours covering the battlefield.  Dad had gone to great efforts to make it interesting for the boys and they loved it (all but J who layed down and fell asleep on the first stand!).  At least J now knows who Napoleon was!  We even had a run-in with a battlefield tour bus which we met in a small lane.  As we were 4/5ths of the way down the lane I was not inclined to budge – eventually the Belgian driver gave way and reversed but not before descending from his vehicle, gesticulating a fair bit and then shrugging his shoulders!

Coincidentally we bumped in to a squadron leader of the 14/20^th Hussars who had been with me in Gulf War One but was now a four star general working in Mons ( I didn’t know we had any four star generals left!).  He managed to get us into the farmhouse at Hougemont, which was great.

Dad holding forth!

Although the day was great and very interesting (we watched the film Waterloo in the ‘beast’ the night before) it was very sad as well.  The two important buildings of the battle – Le Haye Sainte; was closed to the public and Hougemont is now owned by the Belgium Government and is falling down.  To think that Waterloo was the deciding battle of modern Europe.  It was a battle which incorporated several European Nations – Germans, Dutch, British and Belgians who beat the French.  It has had no money given to it and there have been no new attractions or upkeep of buildings for decades.  It is incredibly depressing walking around Hougemont where even the small chapel has been broken into and the cross which was saved from the flames during the battle – stolen.

the farmhouse at Hougemont

We finished around 3pm and had a quick break back at the carpark before heading to the airport to drop off Dad.  It was quite impressive to have had a tour guide flown in for the day!  We then headed towards Ypres, (which is now called Lepers) where we turned off towards Passendale and visited the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the largest Commonwealth Cemetery in the world.  It was then on into a small village in Flanders where we set up camp in another carpark.