Four of us departed Kent early Friday morning to catch the 6.50am train from Folkestone to Calais. Some interesting questions from UK Border police officers re purpose of visit and how much cash we had on us?
Train left on time and arriving in France we had a smooth run from Calais to Antwerp. We used an alternative route to avoid the heavy traffic on the E17 approaching Antwerp, experience of last 5 years. Having got to Antwerp at around 11.30am it then took us over an hour to get to our hotel which was near the main station. Antwerp roads and traffic make London look good. No left turns, no right turns, dust carts collecting rubbish at noon!!! No wonder the police use bicycles. Finally checked in at the hotel - we were told the roadworks (tram system) would be finished November 2019 - hopefully before Crisis next year.
The rest of Friday was spent in the Antwerp Pub opposite the hotel. Several games of C&C Napoleonics Waterloo, lunch, snack, dinner and many beers.
After the traffic of Friday, all agreed an early start for getting to the show on Saturday morning. Left the hotel at 8.45am and aimed for the Scheldt. We actually got to the car park for Crisis at around 9.15. This allowed sufficient time to fight the Antwerp parking meter system. For a fee of €3.80 you can park all day. Absolute bargain. The drawback is trying to get the machine to issue a ticket! After multiple attempts of trying to input my car's registration number and a large queue forming behind me and one of my colleagues, a friendly German said as we were British with a UK registration plate we would not be penalised. So we simply joined our colleagues in the Crisis show queue to await the 10am opening time.
Tip for Crisis organisers; collect €5 from all cars on entry, give €4 to the local government and €1 for the club. Much quicker. We noted, once in the show (€20 including 8 Jetons - tokens for food and drink) how quiet it was initially with streams of people still coming in at 11.30, I suspect after having battled with the parking meters.
Crisis is a great trade show with a really good spread of European traders, especially terrain but also good model material suppliers. A few no shows from the traders (e.g. Flag Dude) but this may have been due to a train failure in the tunnel later Friday morning.
Picked up all my pre-orders plus some (Napoleons Berlin coach for one!). Looked at most games, some excellent (especially the Arnhem game) but some did look like an excuse for a club night game. Couple of my colleagues thought it was quiet until they saw the scrum for the Bring & Buy.
We had a previously made engagement to be at the Ligny Museum at 3pm, which was especially opened for us (shuts for the winter 31 October) after making contact some months back and requesting a visit.
We left Antwerp at around 12.30 and headed south around Brussels. Checked into our Saturday night hotel in Waterloo (Martins - excellent) before heading down to Ligny.
Museum at Ligny was brilliant. Small but really comprehensive coverage of the battle and also Quatre Bras and huge collection of artefacts on display. The most informative exhibit was the map of the Allied and French dispositions on the 16 June 1815 (by squadron, battery and battalion) which provided a clear sense of how stretched out columns were (D'Erlons) and the distances involved - shame they did not have a printed copy for sale. Personally, I thought it more informative than the new Waterloo museum and only €5 per person to get in.
Many thanks to the staff at the museum.
Rest of Saturday afternoon was finding original buildings of the Ligny battlefield including Ferme du Haut and Ferme d'en Bas, both now relatively disused and run down but both very solid!
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| Ferme du Haut |
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| Ferme d'en Bas |
As the day became cooler and darker we made our way back to Waterloo, via Quatre Bras to collect some bricks from the now bulldozed Quatre Bras farm. Will mount this at some point. The wife rolled her eyes when returning home with 200+ year old bricks!!!
Back in Waterloo, dinner at a great Brasserie and then off to the Irish pub (The Snug) for the rest of the evening. It actually closed at 3am but we retired at 2ish.
After breakfast Sunday morning, down to Waterloo battlefield to walk from the new centre to Hougomont via the path marking the Allied right wing front line. Some new markers on the path which I hope do not stay!!
This is promoting a new automated shuttle to run from Waterloo museum to Hougomont. There was one of these about every 12 yards.
They make the Lion Mound look in keeping!
Once at Hougomont, we decided to walk round to the south side (wall defended by the Guards) and then head east towards La Belle Alliance. A bright and chilly morning but a great walk with us finally heading north on the Brussels Road to confirm our views re the location of the Grand Battery at various points in the battle.
Walking the Waterloo battlefield is something I strongly recommend to grasp the hills and undulations. At points between the Allied and French lines you could not see Hougomont or La Haye Saint. And the crops at this time of the year are already harvested. Napoleon's assumed observation point certainly gives probably the best view of the battlefield, especially the Ohain road ridge line where Picton's division was posted as well as east towards the Bois de Paris and Chapelle St Lambert where the Prussians massed before attacking towards Plancenoit. From that point though you cannot see Hougomont at all. Possibly why it is was such a mess down there?
Left Waterloo around noon after a good 2-3 hour walk and back to Calais and then England. Tired but enthused.
Reading show in two weeks!
