Yesterday I have been to Waterloo. Or, actually, to be more precise, I have been to the
Butte du Lion and adjacent battlefields, which are located between Waterloo and Braine-l'Alleud. Yesterday it was a special day as, similar to what happens every year, the anniversary of the battle is celebrated in a weekend in June and special events take place. Indeed, there were the
14th Napoleonic Bivoacs, which means that, in addition to what you can normally see in that area, you can watch a recreation of the environment lived at the time before the battle, the actual happening of the battle and the functioning of a war hospital (which is happening today).
First of all, after arrival, I entered the visitor's center and watched two movies (approximately 20 minutes each) about the battle. After, I climbed all the way up the Butte du Lion and got this sight of the battlefields.
Afterwards, I walked along the battlefields and moved towards the Hougoumont Farm, where the camping of the Allies was being recreated. It is a 15 minutes walk until you reach the place.
There you could see all kinds of people dressed up as the several Allies troops (UK, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Prussia) and their families.
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| This one had an earring! |
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| Cute pompom :) |
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| From there you could also get a nice view of the Butte du Lion. |
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| There were people shooting rifles from time to time. |
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| An important element to fight Napoleon! |
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| There were pirates infiltrated? |
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| Even the toys were dressed up! Action Men circa 1815... |
In the end I went back to the Butte du Lion area and visited the Panorama (where you can see a 360º scenery of the battlefield) and the Wax Museum (not so cool after having seen real recreations of the people at the time). Afterwards, at 20h, there was going to take place the battle re-enactment, where the actors would recreate what happened during the battle (with horses and cannons and all that is required!). Unfortunately, the place where that was going to happen was 5km away from the Butte du Lion and I don't have a car, so having to walk 5km there and then back again to catch the train to Brussels in the middle of the night, didn't seem to be such a good idea. It was a pity because I really wanted to see it, but I asked for information on whether there was a bus to take us there and was told it was only reachable by car. If it was scheduled for a more proper time, like during the day, I wouldn't have minded to walk there and back, but at night it was everything but convenient. The camping of the French troops was also located on that area, so I didn't get to see it as well. During the day they had some events, like at lunch time you could see the meals being prepared like they did at the time and lunch being served to Napoleon. I think that if you have a car and can go on a next time, you can have a lot to see for the whole day! I thought the camping was really well made, as everyone was really into character (they were having dinner when I visited and they were cooking and using objects as at the time, like it was part of their routine and never minding the tourists). They were really acting as they were before a battle and there were way more actors than visitors, so you really could feel like you were back then. The costumes were really well made, with attention to lots of little details. I really loved it and hope I can comeback (with a car this time!) in 2015, when it will be celebrated the 200th anniversary of the battle and I am sure a big set of events would take place (in 2010, when the 195th anniversary was celebrated, the re-enactment took place at noon, which I believe is much more suitable!). I didn't find it too crowded (as I mentioned, there were more actors than visitors!), as I would have expected from a day like this, so you could perfectly move around, take all the photos you wanted and not wait to get to things.
As for visiting it on a normal day, it can be interesting too as you can access all the stuff I have mentioned before, minus the camping and the re-enactment of the battle. But I think that the time when it's really worth a visit is at this time of the year, otherwise the only most impressive thing is the Butte du Lion, which is indeed a magnificent monument. How to get there? From Brussels, take the train (direction Charleroi) to Braine-l'Alleud (just one stop away from Brussels, only 20 minutes of traveling, two trains per hour). There you have two options: either take the W bus to the Butte du Lion (attention for the fact that, on weekends, there's only 2 per hour) or walk there (I did that both ways and it only took me 20 minutes each, just ask someone at the station which direction you should take and then it's always straight ahead with signs indicating you the Butte du Lion).
