Road Trip ~ October 2017~ Day 3~ Waterloo~ part 1

Posted in Adventures, architecture, belgium, Fuji, fujiXT1, History, landscape, museum, Napoleonic, photography, Travel, WaterlooTagged , , , , , , , , , ,

For our 3rd day we travelled back in time from WW2 and into 1815 and the battle of Waterloo. I am sure everyone knows this story so suffice to say the Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: a British-led Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt.

Our first stop was the Wellington Museum which is in the town of Waterloo itself. This former Brabant Inn is where the Duke of Wellington set up his headquarters. He lodged there on 17 and 18 June 1815. On the evening of the battle, he drafted his victory report on his campaign table. The text of this report was published in “The Times” in Britain on 22 June. It is because of this report that the battle is now known as the Battle of Waterloo.

The museum itself was OK, lots of artefacts on display, but I found it all a bit dry to be honest.  Also it was a beautiful sunny day, so I probably wasn’t in the mood for being indoors! The courtyard outside had a gorgeous Ivy turning red in autumnal glory.

We had a wander through the town on our way back to the car,

opposite the museum is St.Joseph’s church, which has a very large number of memorials within, but we didn’t have time to go in really.

there are statues all along the sidewalks, but I can’t find what they’re all about

so we went and had our lunch sitting in the park

before we headed off to see the Lions mound which overlooks the battlefield.  Another museum but this one was really well done. The best bit was a 4D movie, we had to wear special glasses and the 3D effect was very good, you felt like you were in the middle of the battle! (the 4 D bit was because the room shook whenever there was thundering hooves or explosions!).

The displays were well thought out, with the main generals being shown as chess pieces

and the head honcho overlooking them

The army uniforms were on life size mannequins

I liked this idea!

there were also more sobering displays, like these soldiers skulls found on the battlefield

moving pictures were cool, hadn’t seen this idea before (click the arrow in the middle of the picture)

In part two we’ll be going atop the lion’s mound, and seeing the outer area and monuments, so stay tooned!

27 thoughts on “Road Trip ~ October 2017~ Day 3~ Waterloo~ part 1”

  1. Great stuff indeed. I have been to the battlefield and Lion Mound, but I only recall a diorama, not all the fancy stuff you got to see in 2017.
    We did see a recreation of the battle one year, but there were pitifully few reenactors involved, so it looked more like a skirmish!
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  3. Brill!I get a bit tired of museums, in Ireland especially they make these museums and centres up out of nothing at interesting sites and they can be really…empty?big fancy signs and bits and pieces..but this second one looks really good…could spend a lot of time drawing the uniforms and skulls (which are a sobering exhibit and a good idea I think), love the balloon and the 4D!!Whoa, I want some!

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    1. Thanks Clare, I think you missed my previous post on the museum at Arnhem but that was another really engaging one. Thinking about it, the 2 after that are great too, so only the one I couldn’t get in to. I love the way they bring history to life kinda.

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  5. I suspect the Duke did not look that relaxed when he was working on his despatch after the battle, or that clean. I’ve seen the despatch with corrections in his own hand.

    They both look like interesting museums.

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  6. In all my visits to Belgium I’ve not yet made it to Waterloo – so this is doubly interesting. Some museums, in their efforts to be more appealing, have managed to dumb down to the point of being insulting; this one (the second one) seems to have gone the other way – looks brilliant.

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  10. Pingback: Road Trip ~ October 2017~ Day 3~ Waterloo~ part 2 – fragglerocking~across the universe

  11. Oh, I managed to miss this post. I’m glad I spotted it, because it’s really cool, Fraggle. What fascinating architecture. I could spend hours just looking at the front of the building. I got a kick out of the “chess pieces” too. Have a wonder-filled, hug-filled weekend!

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  13. Wow! Very interesting stuff. We’ve been studying public memory and the rhetoric surrounding museums in my class at UTK. It’s quite interesting stuff, thinking about how museums choose to portray things and the kinds of things they choose to display. The skulls ARE sobering and St. Joseph’s cathedral is beautiful…. Looks like a great trip!

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