Wandering boots Tour: Day 17 To Waterloo and back

By the numbers

28599 steps

21.25 kms

I actually slept pretty well even though I was up just after 6am as I wanted to be in Waterloo by around8am so I could walk to the battle side on the other end of town. I wanted a quick breakfast before I left and before the inevitable crowd turns up for the feast. I did see a post on the wall with some of the numbers who would be eating and I was happy that I had done so first thing in the morning. From there I caught the tram to the station and went looking for the platform. I had written everything down so I would know where to go and I did chck to make sure my information was correct and it was. All that was required was to go from the platform to the train. I should mention the weather was wet and I was wearing a likely very smelly jumper that hadn’t been washed for a little while.

It didn’t take long to reach Waterloo station in the town of Waterloo. The annoyance was that it was drizzling and I ended up with my raincoat on and my umbrella out. I walked to where the Duke of Wellington had his base of operations and now a museum, but I was there too early for that and I wanted the battle site. Turns out that was further than I realised as I walked along the street and feeling like I wasn’t getting anywhere. I did make it to the area with around 5 minutes before the museum opened, which was great timing. And i had gone over the overpass for the highway and that was pretty busy like any highway. I waited outside the doors of the museum like it was a library wanting it to open especially as I was wanting the loo.. I soon learnt there was a very long path to Waterloo and even involved the Battle of Trafalgar. The League of Nations monument in Leipzig Germany is in response to this war. I had the audio tour so was pressing numbers as I went. There was heaps involved and Napoleon wanted power and the nations like Britain rallied against him. They told stories through paintings that were made including on the day of the battle. Even in one early battle there was an observation balloon, but Napoleon didn’t think it worked, so was used only once.

I was happy that I had came to the museum as it did show you the uniforms of both sides, although in a way I was hurrying as I had other things I wanted to see. There were videos showing the damage of some of the weapons especially the guns and the swords that were used. They can make a mess too especially the self loading ones. Waterloo was actually the defeat that toppled the Napoleon empire and he was sent to the island of Helena in exile where he died. Both he and the Duke of Wellington were the same age in their 40s during the battle of Waterloo in 1815. By far I never knew there was so much and at the end weeks after the battle a surgeon had gone around making drawings of the wounds and some were really bad. Damage from swords to people’s heads and such. There was part of the collection from the early museum, called the Cotton collection, but I was moving on. I moved to the panorama, which was a huge paining of the battle that went all the way round and there were even sound effects. There was only 3 of us in the room at the time and I did follow the three people up thr Lion’s Mound. There was over 200 stairs to the top. The mount itself is artificial and controversial at the time as it dug up the battle field. The funny thing about the rain was that the French soldiers had to march to Waterloo in the heavy rain with mud everywhere, so they didn’t get much rest. The view from the top was amazing as you could see pretty far and the scene, even though wet was worth the trip.

I did walk around the mound once I got to ground level, but I exited and visited the shop for some stuff that wanted including a guide of the battlefield. I took a walk to the other end of the entry as there were several monuments I wanted to see. Only a couple I could get to as I seen they were very close to the road and didn’t want to get hit by cars. I turned around and headed for the ‘closer’ station that I had selected as the one I wanted. That took a while to walk to and by the time I arrived, I had minutes to catch the train that I had originally wanted to catch back to the city. That meant I had to wait until I got to Brussels for lunch. Someone did come along to check my ticket, which was correct and I was happy about that as I was wondering. Once I got off at Central station, I made my way to get some food and that made up of sandwiches and a chocolate thingy. I groaned as I heard a bunch of noisey kids behind me and they were following their teacher who was wearing the black hat and cloak that the Jewish people wear. The kids were following also had their skull caps. I just don’t know where they vanished to as I had been following them out of the station.

Central Station had a museum that I wanted to visit, yup another museum. This one was all about figuringes called MOOF. Many of the figurines are from Belgium in origin like the Smurfs and Tintin who was a reporter / detective. There were quite a collection of figures and the creators too. Some of the characters did cross over with each other from time to time and there was a bit about the comics code and the troubles with American comics during the 1960s Some of the characters I had seen in the museum, I had seen before online or in comics somewhere. Asterix and Oberlix were ones, but there were others. They even had science fiction characters that were less well dressed than anything, which was interesting when I reached the bookshop as one of the comics, I had literally seen online before. I was happy to see this museum, although there were street art that I wanted to see.

After the museum, I got stuck in some shopping arcade that soold luxurary good like Rolexes and more figurines like the Smurfs, which I thought about, but thought I better wait until the next day as you never know what I could get. People were taking selfies in this mall thing and I walked part of it and went to find what I was really looking for and that was the Smurf mural nearby. Some kids by that time were putting on a concert out in the street. I walked past and up to the mural all the while following my phone. The mural was actually on the roof on an underpass. The next thing on my list was a heritage listed Tintin mural. On the way I got stuck with a sight as people were crowded in this square. I was like WTF – What the Frack is this place? I soon learnt it was the Grand Palace and the whole area was spectacular and mind boggling. I stuck around for a little bit and hunted down the mural. I found it and took a shot before wondering about my next move. The cemetery was shut and the Natural history museum was nearly closed. I headed back to the Waffle type place thinking I would get a train back, but I had tea and decided to look at this comic book wall art.

Turns out after getting navigated the wrong way with my phone as it cant keep up with my walking or I don’t read maps properly. I found myself wandering through the rainbow area and that was tagged with a crossing of rainbows. I found the wall art and realised, I was there the day before. I was very close to the hostel, where I walked and I knew I needed to do a load of washing or else I would stink and wouldn’t really want to leave it til the day before I left. You never know what time I would get back.