On June 18, 1815 Napoleon was defeated by Wellington in a day-long battle
near the Belgian city of Waterloo (just south of Brussels). I’m here at the
battle site waiting for an audio visual presentation to start. The
battlefield was not easy to find. There are no roadway markings pointing
out the way to the battlefield until you are there and can see the Lion’s
Bluff. That tall hill (pictures to follow) was hand-built by peasants
carrying pails of dirt. On top is a statue of a lion representing the Duke
of Wellington. There is a staircase up to the top of several hundred steps.
I think I’ll not do that this afternoon!

My first stop was a kind of a diorama overview of the battle. When that 10
minute piece was finished, we moved into another room for a film which
hasn’t started, yet. The diorama presentation was supposed to give an
overview of the day and I think the film should then fill in some detail.
Napoleon with 130,000 soldiers outnumbered Wellington who was being
reinforced by the Prussians under the command of Bluecher.

The film was very good. It showed parts of the battle from a child’s point
of view. The next stop was the Panorama Display which showed what the heat
of the battle would have looked like in a 360 degree painting. The final
stop was a very tired wax museum.

The whole complex closes in a few minutes. Most of the souvenier shops were
closed anyway for the season. There was very little available in English. I
picked up one post card and that was it.

I’ll now turn the car back towards Gent and go back to the hotel there.
I’ll probably have some more comments when I get on the Internet at the
hotel.

————————–
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld