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<\/a><\/p>\nOnly to discover that the once-a-year reenactment of the battle had taken place that morning, and I had missed it.\u00a0 Then again, I REALLY needed laundry.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a few different things to see at Waterloo.\u00a0 The most obvious from a distance is the Mound of the Lion.\u00a0 It is a huge hill that dominates the landscape of the battlefield, and commemorates the wounding of William II of Orange, arguably maybe the fifth most important commander present at the battle. Maybe.<\/p>\n
Or maybe it commemorates the battle more generally.\u00a0 Given its scale, that\u2019s the more charitable reading.\u00a0 Heck of a view form the top, anyway.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a very well executed museum that talks at length about the history of the battle, the uniforms, the weapons, the commanders, and very little about why Napoleon was not actually a very nice man.\u00a0 (Spoiler: he wasn\u2019t.)<\/p>\n There’s also a display of Napoleonic scenes recreated in Lego, which is pretty neat.\u00a0 Here’s the retreat from Moscow:<\/p>\n Next to the Big Hill of the Moderately Important Guy who Lived Thirty Four More Years After The Battle is a panorama, a kind of nineteenth century VR installation where you stand inside a 360 degree painting and see the battle illustrated all around you.\u00a0 That was also pretty neat.<\/p>\n But honestly, the most impressive thing was just walking a few hot and sweaty kilometers around the battlefield and appreciating the importance of this particular bit of Belgian farmland to the history of the world.\u00a0 Counterfactuals are always a bit iffy, but there\u2019s one small gate in the wall of one small farmhouse at one end of the battle line that could potentially have changed the course of everything if it had been successfully breached. (as it almost was.)<\/p>\n It was also a hoot walking around surrounded by all the reenactors, who were largely still there after their morning\u2019s exertions, and also largely still in costume.\u00a0 Made it even easier to visualize being back in 1815, except for the bit where they were also largely tailgating next to their cars at this point.<\/p>\n At the end of my visit, I was at the other end of the battlefield from the bus stop, so I decided to just go ahead and walk back to the bus station.\u00a0 I blame heat exhaustion at this point from preventing me from doing something dumb like this much more walking in the sun.<\/p>\n At least I didn\u2019t walk back to my hotel from the train station in Nivelles.\u00a0 No, instead of that I (checks notes)\u2026 oh wait, no, I did do that.\u00a0 It was a long day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After spending all day Saturday in a group, on Sunday I struck out on my own\u2026 \u2026to the laundromat. I had, after all, been in Europe for 2 weeks at this point with one carry-on sized suitcase. The process was … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n