The McMahans meet their Waterloo

No trip to Belgium would be complete without a stop at the battlefield of Waterloo, am I right? Well, for us that is certainly the case and it was a great day for it. We were greeted by sun which shone down on us as we arrived in the town where the battle was fought that now somewhat resembles a strip mall. However, the battlefield is still generally untouched, aside from the gigantic hill they built right on the spot where William of Orange (the Dutch monarch) was wounded. Not a bad monument for getting a non-fatal wound!

For only about 30 Euros were we are to visit all the battle-related museums including the faux hill, the panorama (known as a cyclorama to Americans) and the nifty little wax museum. Cora is very excited to be the only girl in her class and possibly the only girl from Sykesville ever to have walked both the battlefield of Austerlitz, Napoleon's greatest victory, and Waterloo, his final defeat. Some girls have all the luck, don't they?



See, I told you it wasn't such a long walk from Brussels.















Napoleon never looked better, did he?











Elizabeth prepares to climb the 266 steps up to the Butte de Lion.