My Waterloo

My wife kindly arranged in October 2018 for our family to visit Brussels capital of Belgium and a visit to the Waterloo Battlefield as it is today.  We all travelled there on the Eurostar train service from London direct to Brussels and stayed in an excellent Bed and Breakfast establishment close to the city centre.  We then had an interesting day finding out more about Brussels on a free walking tour which I found very worthwhile.  The next day we embarked on a bus journey to the town of Waterloo and the adjacent battlefield.  

Over the previous months I had read many books on the Battle of Waterloo but my wife also bought me a tourist guide to the battlefield "Waterloo & Beyond" by Antony Mason (ISBN 9781784770013)which was my main reference on the visit.  This book is an excellent companion giving details of travel, highlights and useful insights.  The battlefield and its numerous attractions had undergone extensive renovations to coincide with 200th anniversary in 2015.  Virtually all the locations were multi-lingual which is very good to know.  

The battlefield has a variety of museums and sites of interest scattered around the countryside.  The most convenient way to get around the battlefield is by car but I highly recommend the bus service from Brussels which is about a 50 minute journey and only costs 10 Euros allowing you hop on and off at will dependent on the bus times on the various routes.  

Our visit stop was to visit the Tourist Information Office by L'Eglise Saint-Joesph in Waterloo Town next and for about 15 Euros you can obtain a day pass with a significant discount to all the museums and sights of interest.  There is a small museum within this building but we chose not to visit it.  The bus stop is directly opposite the Tourist Information.  

The first museum we visited was Le Musée Wellington which was across the main road from the Tourist Information Office.  This is a former coaching inn which was used by Wellington before and after the battle which was effectively his headquarters.  It contains a multitude of interesting exhibits. 

We had to curtail our visit to quickly catch the next bus on the other side of the road.  We hopped onto the bus and proceeded down the N5 road to the southside (French) of the battlefield passing the La Belle Alliance to visit Le Ferme de Caillou.  The museum which was Napoleon's headquarters before the battle is inside a recently renovated farmhouse.  It is mostly dedicated to Napoleon and his army.  

Back onto the bus and we headed North up the N5 road to passing the various monuments and buildings of the battlefield including La Haye Sainte to the Wellingtons Crossroads sitting on the ridge of Mont St. Jean.  As we were starting to get hungry we passed a number of eateries and decided on a newly built Wellington Café opposite the Butte du Lion (Lion Mound).  I could not resist having a Waterloo beer at Waterloo with my meal.  

After the meal it was onto the new subterranean memorial of the Battle of Waterloo visitor centre.  What an awesome experience visiting the various exhibits.  It was one of the best attractions I have ever visited.  

The visitor centre also includes the panorama and the Lion Mont which gives fantastic sights across whole area.  The panorama is a 100 year old exhibit containing a colossal painting of Marshall Ney's cavalry charge against the infantry squares.  The Lion Mount was erected by the Dutch marking the spot where the Price of Orange was wounded during the battle.  Thankfully is was not hot when we ascended the 43m high mound.  If it was busier then it would much longer to ascend and descend as there is only one narrow set of stairs.  Although we could see parts of Hougoumont we did not have time to visit it.  

Our last visit was to the Le Ferme de Mont St. Jean which was originally owned by the Knights of Malta.  It contains the Waterloo Brewery, an impressive shop and a museum dedicated to when during and after the battle it was used a hospital to treat soldiers from both sides.  

Well that's the visit over, apologies for the numerous photographs but it gives a useful idea what to expect.  We all gone on the bus and headed back to Brussels thoroughly enlightened by what we had seen, read and drunk.