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Published: December 11th 2007
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Butte du Lion
In the background you can see the lion topped mound marking the spot where William of Orange was injured. Yeah, more friends visit Belgium!! We can't get enough entertaining 😊 We are very happy to have Maura and Bill visiting us from greater Boston. Maura and I used to work together (the girls can't believe someone used to pay me to do things) and we have spent many hours reminiscing (a shout out to declass right here!). They arrived from Amsterdam, despite the scheduled Belgian train strike (occurring the several times over the next few weeks) and we had a relaxing rainy afternoon together. Saturday night I prepared a traditional Belgian dish, witloof, which is endive wrapped in ham with a cheesy cream sauce to help fuel us for our next adventure: a Sunday in Waterloo.
We were so happy that the trains were working, the weather was brilliant and that we were able to see a new sight here in Belgium. Even better was being able to tour around Waterloo with a serious war historian like Bill. When we arrived we checked in at the local tourist office where the woman working gave us the most help we have been given in our seven months in this country. She was fantastic. We got seriously deliciously pastries and coffee
to enjoy while we waited for the bus to the lion. This 40 meter high man made mound is known as the Butte du Lion. It marks the site where William of Orange (who became king of the Netherlands) was wounded. Women carting baskets of soil took two years to build it! We climbed the 226 steps to a beautiful view of the countryside. It was really impressive to look out and see that not much of the countryside has probably changed since that fateful day on June 18, 1815 when the course of European history changed forever.
After the monument we went into the visitor center and saw a really interesting audiovisual presentation with lights and maps and music that showed where the French, Dutch, Prussian and English armies were doing battle throughout the day. Then there was a really odd film with two children imagining that they were in the battle; the girls were a little terrified of this. We stopped by the gift shop where we found that most of the merchandise was profiling Napolean rather than Wellington (the victor in this case), but we did score a comical Napoleon key chain for our Christmas tree.
Bill and Jonathan
Here Bill is explaining (in detail) how the battle played out over the countryside. We went next door to the Panorama de la Bataille which has a 110 meter circular painting of the battlefield. Created in 1912 it is a little old fashioned but does give perspective on pieces of the battle.
Thirsty we hit the tavern across the street for some tasty Belgian beer while we waited out the rain. We were told that there was a closer train station than the Waterloo stop we took the bus from so we decided to walk/run. It was quite a haul but we arrived exactly as the train to Brussels pulled into the station. We were home safe and sound by 7 and by 8:30 the kids were in bed and we were feasting on mussels and frites marking the end of another wonderful Belgian adventure!
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