Waterloo Battle Reenactement

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 and involved the French army led by Napoleon, against the allied armies led by Wellington and Blucher. It was fought in Waterloo, Belgium (not Ontario). It marked the end of Napoleonic era in Europe. Every year, at the site of the battle, thousands of volunteers re-enact the battle right where it was fought. And an audience of other thousands watch it.

This year, we were among the audience. We arrived in the eve of the reenactment sleeping in the town of Wavre (the same where the Prussians under Field Marshal Blucher were stationed before the battle). On Sunday we drove to the battlefield, located by the Lion's Mound (first picture) inside Waterloo's historical site. The traffic jam was huge and started several kilometres before in the highway. We were lucky that the GPS made a mistake and led us through one of its shortcuts. This time, it worked quite conveniently.

The other pictures show a few moments of the re-enactment. The second shows musket exchange between the French and the British troops. The third picture shows troops in motion. The fourth shows the defensive squares the British formed when under attack by the French cavalry. And, finally, a pile of dead French soldiers.

The whole show took 3 hours and the weather was not the best, cloudy and cold. At the end, though, the sun shone. We then had lunch and drove back to Delft, two hours drive.

Belgium Royal Observatory

I had the chance to visit the Royal Observatory of Belgium, in Brussels. The Observatory is located in a very nice neighbourhood in Brussels. There, I met with Pascale Defraingne and Carine Bruyninx. Good discussions with top notch researchers.

The Beer Temple?

Walking around the narrow streets of Bruges I ran into something that took my breath away (but not my thirst): the beer temple (not 'a' beer temple, 'the' beer temple). In there I could pay my dues to the beer order, I mean, I ordered and purchase a few bottles of holy beer (for a later worship). And, while talking to one of the servants of the temple, I was told that there are almost 200 breweries in Belgium, with over one thousand different label names. Holy barley! I need more funding for a more thorough and lengthy investigation. I wonder if NSERC would be interested on that ;-)

And, still on the Beerlgium issue, I found this t-shirt that describes well the development of homo belgiums.

Bruges

Yesterday, we drove to the old town of Bruges, in the Flemish part of Belgium, to meet with our stranded relatives. They were all supposed to fly to Amsterdam but their plane ended up stopping in Portugal. From there, they drove all the way to Paris and then to Bruges.

Bruges is very similar to Delft, but larger and with much more tourists. It also has thousands of shops selling Belgium chocolate and Belgium beer.

We enjoyed everthing, including a tour through its canals. At the end of the weekend we were exausted but happy for the family reunion.

"Scientific research" (part 7 of many)

The add says: Kwak, a Belgium beer in a unique glass. They are right. The glass is interesting, but its contents is much better, until it becomes empty. When this happens, the uniqueness of the glass loses its purpose.

Now, I have to admit that drinking, I mean, performing a scientific experiment overlooking Bruges' main square is quite something.

Traffic jam in Bastogne

After leaving the memorial, our GPS unit, under our observant eyes, took us through Bastogne. It was a sunny Sunday, and everybody seemed to wander through its main street. Incredible to think that just a few decades ago this town was levelled to the ground during the war.

Battle of the Bulge Memorial

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Battle of the Ardennes, was a major WWII battle for the liberation of Europe. As the allies were pushing hard towards Berlin, the Germans conter-attacked. They crossed the advancing allied lines, creating a bulge. The Germans encountered resistance by the Americans at the town of Bastogne, in Belgium. The Germans asked the Americans to surrender, getting as answer a single word, 'nuts.' They must have taken that as a serious offense because they brought hell to the American troop in Bastogne, which resisted until the American army led by Patton (who else) came kicking butts to the rescue.

The GPS is right but the GIS is wrong

Leaving Vianden Castle we took the road towards Batogne, in Belgium, to visit the Bastogne Battle Memorial. Our GPS navigator, which we brought with us from Canada, with the most updated map for Europe, took us through a narrow and windy road, covered by a forest and used by crazy bikers and even crazier motor-bikers! Overall enjoyable even though, unlike the motor-bikes, we could not drive fast.

As we were approaching Bastogne, the GPS unit started to indicate a dirty road as the direction to a major landmark! What the heck! Look at the picture and see the road. Now, look to the GPS unit display and you will see the flag indicating the destination. It is not the GPS fault, but an error of the system that manages the positional information. Most likely its databank has this dirty road as paved road. Anyhow, the human interface is still important. LOL.