WATERLOO BATTLE RENOVATION ONE MONTH LEFT

May 26, 2015

On Wednesday 18 June the inauguration of the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo will take place. As I had visited the site several times to watch how the works would go on, I went there just one day of the opening of the new Memorial which is built under ground. And one month before the official opening of the renovated site.



There were many tourists on the unfinished site ! More than usual.



From what I observed there is still a lot of work to be accomplished to make the site look ready for the thousands of tourists who will come for this event.




The street around the site are far from being finished ! Napoleon's statue which stood under the weeping willow tree had disappeared.




There is still some demolishing and digging going on !



The proud eagle who stood in front of a beautiful old restaurant stood there rather forlorn. I have no idea which new place it will find.



The new built which replaces all the old restaurants and buildings like the Wax museum looks finished at least from outside. Compared to the past I found it ugly.



But at least I there was a cheerful soldier who was happy to pose !

It was just the day before the official inauguration of a brand new memorial on May 22.



The street along the memorial which is built under ground just besides the Lion Hill was still unfinished.



Workers tried to clean the street



It didn't look very inviting and I was glad to wear boots !



A worker cleaned the windows in front of the memorial and others put the last cobble stones.



The dust was blown away with a huge machine looking like a vacuum cleaner only instead of sucking in the dust it blow it away. I coughed my lungs out and had to clean my camera and my glasses.



The top of the memorial looked finished



The emergency exit too



And then the next day it was ready ! They probably had worked the whole night through. The VIP's arrived and I listened to the orchestra.



This is a video which shows the memorial inside.

I only hope that everything will be ready for the 18 of June !

For this occasion I will work as a volunteer in the Tourist Office of Waterloo.

You can find other posts about the renovation in my sidebar under "Waterloo"