Don't Wake The Lion

Oh, it was one of those days. We did everything we planned to do and failed to do them all. As always, up early, good breakfast and we set off for Waterloo. I've always wanted to visit the Butte Du Lion, a 40m high man-made mound that used earth from the battlefields to build it and topped by an iron lion. Another example of a structure that is difficult to envisage that it was done by hand. But, no. Idiot boy here should have realised that with the bicentenary next year at least some work would be taking place. And there was a lot. Roads being repaired, hotel being built by the visitor centre, areas fenced off, muddy all round. The same story for Hougoumont farm, another thing I should have remembered was undergoing refurbishment. Hmm. So I took a quick long distance shot as a possible Blip. While I was doing this Bullseye threw himself at the fence so that, in his words, he could “play with the little kitty”. Silly boy. But it does beg the question, why does England have a non-native animal as one of it's national symbols? A wolf, boar or bear I could understand, even a bull mastiff, each one equally able to signify strength and courage. But do I really care? Non.

Anyroad, we had lunch in the café by the visitor centre (now that definitely could do with refurbishment) and agreed to drive down to Ghent and visit the Dr. Guislain Museum. Nice easy run, random music playing (I particularly enjoyed No Man’s Mama by Carolina Chocolate Drops, had to restart it, I didn't realise what a great voice Rhiannon Giddens has) and eventually reaching the outskirts of Ghent. Nightmare 2: This time it involves major roadworks and tram track laying (hello Edinburgh). We crawled along, that is, when we moved. Got to where we needed to turn and the road had been closed. It would have taken a 20km detour to get to the place. Right, sez I through gritted teeth, we're going to Ieper. Crawled out of Ghent and got to Ieper, parked the car and, after a short intermission, discussed what to do. We decided to visit the In Flanders Fields museum. Got in there about 15:20. It cost 18 Euros but it looked really interesting. Lots of things to view and read and, for once, the multi-media didn't make me raise my eyebrows and go “tut”. Then at 15:45 – Bingely Bong “The museum will shut in 15 minutes”. Why didn't they say when we paid? And why didn't I check when we entered? Oh, mutter, mutter, mutter.

At least 3M got her chocolates from her favourite shop.

Good news is, I probably won't be accessing Blip tomorrow as the ferry Internet connectivity is slooooooooow. Worse than my old 300/75 acoustic coupler. Really.