Spring 2017 Trip, part one, Waterloo

This tour was organised by The Cultural Experience, a company in Salisbury that specialises in battlefield tours.

16th June. An early start on Friday morning, leaving from London St Pancras railway station, a lovely station in the Gothic style. The Eurostar train was running from London to Brussels where we arrived in time for lunch in the Grand Place. From there we drove to Waterloo.

The town of Waterloo seems to be going through an up-swing. The town has become an expensive suburb of Brussels with a number of houses, shops and restaurants built or modernised in the last ten years. Our hotel, the Cote Vert, was to be our base for three nights.

Our first campaign stop was the Wellington Museum in the centre of town.

Napoleon, On Campaign, Spring 1814, original painting by Meissonier, this copy painted in 1992

French artillery piece, cast in Douai

17th June. First stop of the day was at Fleurus to see the windmill that was converted to an observation platform for Napoleon.

Next - Ligny

Monument translation below

Entrance to Ligny village, the French attacked down this lane

Ligny Main square - a little more built-up than in 1815

The monument reads "In homage to the Emperor's valiant Grognards, artisans of his last victory.
Ligny 16th June 1815. This monument is a gift from Ben Weider, President of the International Napoleonienne Society." - or something close to that.

From Ligny and after lunch at a golf club, we drove to Quatre Bras.

View from the far left of the British position.

View from centre-right of the British line.

View from the French line.

From the French centre towards Quatre Bras

Monument to the Duke of Brunswick who died on the field of battle.

I am not able to demonstrate the undulations between the opposing armies of Wellington and Ney. As an example, from the centre of the British line, I could see a dip in which there were several paddocks with horses and donkeys, from the French line the paddocks could not be seen.

Monument to British troops that fought at Quatre Bras, unveiled by 8th Duke of Wellington in 2002

Dutch monument to their cavalry

My photos end here, but I have found some more images on the Internet.

Monument to the Belgian forces at Quatre Bras

Cuirasiers v infantry caught mid-manoeuvre, (29th South Lincs?)

Brunswick Hussars

Gemioncourt Farm

The crossroads, before the barns were demolished

Monument to the Dutch forces at Quatre Bras

Saxe-Weimar briefs his commanders at the start of the battle.

Spring Trip 2017

I have had a great trip to Waterloo and Lille. I will share the photos over the next few days but here is a taster. This bust is thought to be of Vauban, it is in Lille's Fine Art Gallery.

Also in Lille

This magnificent gate - the Porte de Paris - a triumphal arch that was built when Lille was occupied by Louis XIV's armies and taken into France.

From the Waterloo tour

Hougoumont

Re-enactors

The Duke of Brunswick Memorial at Quatre Bras

Eboracum Roman Festival, York.

"Good morning Eboracum. When we left , 1700 years ago, we said we'd be back. Well. Here we are, a little late maybe, but here we are."

The opening words from the Roman compere when introducing the Legions at the Eboracum Roman Festival on Sunday. The re-enactors are mainly showing the uniforms of around year 125 AD, with a few from 400 AD 9those with the trousers and round shields). The running order was a parade and a march through York, a display of birds of prey, the Romans returned to Museum Gardens for a display of drill and sparring. All great fun.

Here are some of my photos.

"R & G are dead"

A great week. International cricket is back. Having previously beaten Ireland in two 50 over matches, this week England have beaten South Africa TWICE.

Mark Wood winning the second match by bowling  a very clever last over

This is a good sign for England as the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy starts on 1st June - South Africa are very strong side and two England wins in these pre-tournament warm-up matches will give us a good confidence boost.

Also - B and I went to City Screen in York for a live broadcast from the Old Vic Theatre in London of Tom Stoppard's play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead". Very enjoyable - really good performances from Daniel Radcliffe as R, Joshua McGuire as G and David Haig as The Player.

Meanwhile - back at home - I haven't mentioned our daily visitor. Since October 2016, this chap has been visiting us for lunch every day.

A cock pheasant who comes to share the seed.

If there is insufficient for his meal he jumps up and knocks the feeder

After lunch he often goes for a sleep behind the flowers in the undergrowth

We are pleased to see him and pleased that he feels safe enough to stay for a post-lunch kip. No sign of a hen yet or of any nest-building; do pheasants make nests?

"Alien Covenant"

If you liked the first "Alien" film then, I believe, you will enjoy this film. "Both B and I thought this was far better than "Alien Prometheus".

Alien Covenant" is the latest release in the Alien series. It is part two of a four part sequence of prequel films that are building up to the original film "Alien". There is nothing really new here but the craft, the storytelling, the acting are all extremely well done.

Bristol

I spent last weekend in Bristol and had a really nice time. 

City centres are changing, as the economy goes more online and as more people move back into the centres. Bristol is like a number of English cities, it is going through a period of regeneration. A lot of buildings are being repurposed; old warehouses are being gutted and converted to apartment blocks, bank branches are closing and being redeveloped into coffee shops or restaurants with apartments above. Small squares are being opened up for use. As an example, since my last visit a year ago, this footbridge has been installed.

Passed old and new buildings

91M refers to the length of the footbridge

It leads to this canyon between buildings

which leads onto a square holding a (weekly?) street food market

Back on the other side of the river, I came across another street food market.

All this food made me very hungry so stopped and had a delicious Moroccan chicken couscous - how trendy is that.....

It may not be the new Jerusalem, but for me, as a city boy I find these changes away from the old satanic mills to be stimulating and envigorating.