"Walking Napoleonic Battlefields - new link" Topic

When I started the blog I did not realise that it would be running out of space so quickly, but I now find that I have already used 75% of the storeage capacity for photographs on this blog. One of the main reasons is the large number of photographs on the Walking Napoleonic Battlefields blog. So I have started a new blog for all future reports. I have also taken the opportunity to move alll of the old ones, and arrange them in three seperate blogs as follows:

Walking Waterloo
Includes visits to:
Brussels
Ohain
Quatre Bras
Ligney
Plancenoit
La Haye Sainte
Hougoumont
The Left Flank
Link : walkingwaterloo.blogspot.com

Walking Portugal and Spain – One
A coach trip which included visits to:
Lisbon
Elvas and Fort Christoval
Badajoz
Albuera
Alcantara
The Coa
Fuentes de Onoro
Salamanca
Talavera
Madrid
Link : link

Walking Portugal and Spain – Two
A return visit on our own to:
Torres Vedras
Vimiero
Obidos
Rolica
Poco Velho
More Fuentes de Onoro
Link : link

I love reading your blogs and pine for the day that I will be able to something similar. Really a wonderful and informative site.

David

Hi David

I am glad that you are enjoying the blogs, and they must be working if they make you want to do something similar. That was the purpose of them.

My only advice would be – don't put it off. Its a wonderful way to spend a week's holiday and facinating to visit those battlefields you have read so much about. To stand on Crauford's stone at Busaco or sit in the garden at Hougoumont.

Paul

I'm in the states so for the most part am confined to exploring civil war battlefields. I would love to get back to europe and explore the Spanish countryside, which would be much more my thing than visiting the great cities. I did get to walk around fort Negley here in Nashville with my son this weekend, which was a nice change. He has showed very little interest in military history so far. Since he's 13 and hasn't caught the bug, I imagine it's just not going to be his thing, but the time together was very nice.

David

Thanks for the update Paul, your blogs have helped me recall some of my trips and have helped me in some of the readings on the Waterloo and Peninsular War.

Any chance of adding Busaco at some stage?

Elliott

Hi Elliott

I have done Busaco, but somehow missed it from Portugal and Spain two above. You will find it here:

link

If the link does not work its label 07.

Typing the blogs and looking at the old photographs have also brought it all back to me too. An old wargaming friend is retiring to Spain next year, and I am hoping that we can get together to do some of the Wellington battlefields again.

We might even try some of the Spanish battlefields, but researching them in English is so much more difficult.

Paul

Good work, Paul. I always enjoy reading your blog.

Thank you Paul.

The ting that struck me most forcibly about Busaco, compared to many battlefields is just how steep the ridge is.

Elliott

And how long! When we visited the area we were overwhelmed by the sheer size of it. It makes you wonder how Wellington could have controlled, or even planned, a battle over such a large area.

I know that the ridge was treeless then, so visability would have been easier. But its still a huge area to deploy an army and then control it.

When you have the opportunity to walk over the area of the larger Napoleonic battlefields it makes you realise how difficult it was for the commanders and troops. Not at all like our neat little wargame tables where we can see every single figure at a glance.