"Waterloo meet up (19th June)?" Topic

Hello

My wife and I have just finished making our arrangements for a short stay in Belgium near Waterloo over the bicentennial period. We – or rather I – left it pretty late, but it's all sorted now… phew!

I noticed, thanks to a post here in TMP, that bloggers had met up at Salute 2015. I was miffed I hadn't known about that, as I'm new to wargame blogging, having only stared last year, and would love to have met up with fellow bloggers at Salute.

So, I thought I'd tentatively extend the furry hand of friendship in relation to our Waterloo trip. My vague thoughts at this stage are to perhaps suggest a meeting somewhere the day after the battle, the 19th June, to chat about and compare notes re the 18th.

Please contact me here or via my blog if this would be of interest, or to let us know if something like this is already being arranged by someone else, so we don't miss out on this as well!

We went to Waterloo and environs last year, as a kind of recce I guess. There's a pub/restaurant at the Lion Mound hamlet, and a café nearby. Mind you, they are neither the greatest of venues. At least the pub is quite large. The café is tiny! Does anyone with better local knowledge have any suggestions as to the best (nicest) potential site for a meet-up? My memory's hazy at this time of morning, but isn't one of the buildings on the central road a café/restaurant now?

Anyhoo…I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who'll be making the pilgrimage, and I do hope some of us can meet and share our enthusiasm on the battlefield.

Regards

Sebastian

There is a very large re-enactment of Waterloo going on during this time which will make travelling and refreshments very difficult You may want to take it into consideration.
More info at the event website: waterloo2015.org/en

and according to website the only tickets left are for the firework display, not the battles.

Well, I obvioulsy knew about the re-enactment: that's why we're going! I just assumed, foolishly it appears, that it'd be a free 'public' event. Silly me. Hmmm!? So, cancel the trip or attempt a desperate scramble to blag some kind of tickets or access… oh dear!!!

Keep checking Ticketmaster… I managed to get some last month, when I first checked they were sold out.

Hello Sebastian,
The little cafe is gone (too bad), the whole site is still under construction and has to be finished in a few weeks.
The place will be absolutely packed in that weekend, some 100.000 or so over the whole weekend. Biggest problem will be parking in the area unless you come really early.
For the re enactments (evening) there are some extra tickets made available last week (4.000 for each night) but they might also have sold out by now.
The spectacle will be massieve… if you can get at it. Buit it is certainly nt a good weekend for a "quiet" pilgrimage or a meet up with Friends. and everything will closed off , no free rambling around Hougoumont Le caillou etc.

How can they close off such a vast area (small by battlefield standards I admit)? They cannot fence off Plancenoit. I can well imagine the ridge top being filled with grandstands, tickets only but how can they stop the average trekker on foot getting near enough to the action to see something? Transport, will be a nightmare. Braine l'Alleud station could never cope…..

The Cambronne is long gone. The Wellington Bar was much nicer than it looked from the outside…I assume that is also gone.

A free public event….of course you would have assumed so. But commercial considerations rule in those parts. Never had the least interest in maintaining the battlefield, till they found it could be a moneyspinner. The miracle is that the motorway stuck to the old Nivelles road in the end after protests

The Wellington bar is still in place, but will be torn down after the commemorations and replaced by…
Main problem with the event will be the traffic congestion, lack of sufficient parking etc and the area near the re enactment will be cordoned off, other part off the battlerfield are of course still open but difficult to reach. The new vunderground visitors centre should be open by then and judging from the ads should be good but I guess during that weekend it will be rather overcrowded.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

@kadavar – well, I suppose I ought to thank you for alerting me to my folly, so: thanks… I felt a right idiot when I found out that it was ticketed… and even more so on hearing it was also sold out!

Or not, perhaps…!?!?

@marcel1809 – perhaps I got one of those extra 4000? thanks for your input (and Mark's as well), I'm glad I persisted!

So, after my initial panic on getting kadavar's news, I've very fortunately been able to buy 'combi' tickets that will give my wife and I access to the bivouac area and the opening ceremony on the 18th, and a re-enactment event – 'The French Attack' – on the 19th. We're in the area from the 16th, so it remains to be seen what access is like before the 18th.

My last re-enactment event was an ECW Sealed Knot do at Wimpole Hall, a local NT (National Trust, for non-UK folks), about 30 years ago! I'm not one for large events, as a rule, and I have mixed feelings looking at the opening 'Inferno' show. But I'm hoping a visit to the bivouac area and the French Attack will be worth the trip.

And whatever happens – even if we hadn't been able to secure tickets – I'll be chuffed to be in the locale at the time. I missed out on all the Russia 1812 bicentennial stuff, and that's my favourite area of Napoleonics at present.

But it was Waterloo that got me into the era, so this is going to be special for me/us. And I plan to do as much Waterloo reading as is physically possible between the events and meals, etc.

Not had any takers on meeting up. Never mind. This old grognard will be happy with his wife, his Waterloo books, plenty of nice Belgian beers, and huge crowds of reenactors and enthusiasts!

BTW, regarding tickets… they were sold out but they added some more as mentioned above, however for a short while they were available only to the waitlkst, keep looking at sherpa.be they might open them up, and if not if you have someone in uk that can get them for you ticketmaster.co.uk had some a few weeks ago, so give that a try…

I was able to go to Borodino 2012 and it was fantastic !

cheers,
Francisco ( looking at his own printed tickets :) )

Glad to hear you got some tickets, Sebastian, hadn't heard about them adding late ones. I managed to get one of the re-enactors places (the participant list was filled and closed by November). We have been warned that once we were on site, don't expect to be able to get out as parking and local roads are going to be stretched.

I bet Wellington never had an issue getting tickets

I was also wondering how they could close off the whole battlefield? For the past free reenactments you could even climb on the Lion mound for a view! Just today managed to snag a combi-ticket for the French attack on the 19th. This includes tickets to the bivouacs on the 18th. I had to call since the Sherpa site wouldn't take my US CC. They said everything else is sold out. Except the Combis and parking passes! (I'll be taking the train).

I thought about buying another Combi for the reenactment on the 20th, but again I thought how could they keep one from viewing at a distance, say from Napoleon's viewpoint on the road to Genappe?

Exactly. There will be grandstands and fenced off areas on the ridge and around La B Alliance and Hgmt. But still there are public roads for the walker and Sebastian P, you are right. Everyone has a right to meet their costs for something like this…it will take some staging…….but it should be like Woodstock.Don't exploit it for a quick Euro. The freaks should tear down the barriers…it's a free festival from now on…………..and it bucketed down for three days after that.

I will be there (bought my tickets one year in advance) and As I understood tickets are just for the seats in the Lion Mould. I was in Waterloo some years ago and I am quite sure they can not fence all the terrain. What I mean is even if you go without tickets you will be able to see part of the spectacle. (19th and 20th June at 20.00 BTW)

Besides my twin brother is a reenactor there and told me there is a camp where all reenactors live that can be visited.

Hope you enjoy the trip.