The name Waterloo strikes up different images in people’s minds, maybe ABBA at the Eurovision song contest or a busy London tube station, but Rosie Khdir rediscovers the Waterloo that was scene of an epic European battle 195 years ago.

This year mark the 195th anniversary of Napoleon’s Defeat by the combined armies of the Seventh Coalition, and this weekend will see Belgium come alive with celebrations of this victory.

The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was the last stand that saw Napoleon toppled from his position as ruler of the French empire.

The armies of the United Kingdom, Prussia, the United Provinces, Hanover, Nassau and Brunswick fought in the fields at Waterloo, in modern-day Belgium, and in three days defeated his army of 72,000 men.

The celebrations start with an hour-long Battle of Waterloo-inspired firework and light spectacle at 10 p.m. Then on Saturday visitors are able to travel to the Napoleonic bivouacs, to discover the everyday life of a typical soldier in the imperial army.

Also taking place during the weekend will be a full scale reenactment of the battle with over 3,000 soldiers and Napoleon himself – who is often played by an American actor. Access to these events is free.

Visitors can also learn more about the battle and its participants via the Wellington Museum, which used to be the Bodenghien Inn and former headquarters of the Duke of Wellington during the Battle of Waterloo.

For more information visit the official tourism site for the Waterloo region.

P&O Ferries does a great value service from Hull – Zeebrugge, or you can take the Dover – Calais route from where it is just a short drive along the E40 to the Belgian border. Prices start at just £30 for a car and up to nine people.

Painting by Robert Alexander Hillingford

Been here before haven’t we? Hope and optimism are cruel, but maybe, just maybe this could be England’s year. Or it might not. Tomas Mowlam keeps his fingers crossed.

England are in Group C with Algeria, Slovenia and the USA. The first match comes against the USA on 12th June in Rustenburg, at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, with kick off at 19:30 our time.

All eyes will be on Rooney and Lampard to make this England’s year. The American’s are the major competition; in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup they beat Spain in the semis and led Brazil 2-0, before being beaten 3-2. No longer the odd ones out it seems.

Next the England team will have to slog south to Cape Town to take on Algeria on 18th June at the JEP stadium in Johannesburg, with kick off at 15:00 our time.

Finally we’re playing Slovenia on 23rd June at Port Elizabeth with kick off again at 15:00 our time.

If you’re in London and fancy watching a few gutted American fans weep over their defeat then check out the Sports Bar in Piccadily. Otherwise we’ll be impressed if you can find a pub that’s not playing the games.

John Hillman looks back on previous eruptions and discovers some remarkable similarities between then and now

The last time that the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, erupted was back in 1821. At the time it had very little impact on Briton’s travel plans, as ferries to France were, and still are, completely unaffected by volcanic ash. The concept of being strapped in to a hurtling metal box at 35,000 feet hadn’t yet caught on.

Yet a look back on the events of 1821 leads to the discovery of a number of events that bear an uncanny resemblance to goings on today.

George IV was crowned King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. A rather pitiful character, he is remembered for his extravagance and licentiousness during a time of extreme financial difficulties for the country. It is said that as an underemployed prince he often visited Parisian brothels, where he was entertained in a specially commissioned bath filled with champagne.

Prince Harry, who was recently accused of similar profligacy, when allegedly seen splurging £10,000 on champagne in fashionable South Kensington nightclub, would do well to heed the obituary written for his ancestor in the Times. It was a less than endearing eulogy, one which could easily apply to another recently departed leader, one G. Brown of Dunfermline East:

“There never was an individual less regretted by his fellow-creatures than this deceased king. What eye has wept for him? What heart has heaved one throb of unmercenary sorrow? … If he ever had a friend—a devoted friend in any rank of life—we protest that the name of him or her never reached us”

But the cyclical similarities don’t end here. The summer of 1821 saw the people of Greece in open revolt against their foreign rulers, openly fighting in the streets in a ferocious attempt to gain independence from the Ottomans, an empire famed for being every bit as greedy and bloated as the banking empires that have brought the people of Greece again, 189 years later.

Elsewhere a one of Europe’s great symbols of its empirical ambition lay dying on the Island of St Helena. As the ash cloud of Eyjafjallajökull continues to blow across Europe, the second pocket sized conqueror of the EU, namely the euro, looks in severe danger of going the same way. Its demise would probably be greeted with as much mirth on this side of the Channel as Napoleon’s undoubtedly was all those years ago.

There’s no doubt that the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull heralds a time of great change and upheaval. But it’s nice to know that some things remain constant, and P&O Ferries passengers can rest assured in the knowledge that, whatever happens at 35,000 feet, ships will still be linking Britain to the continent just as they always have been.

Image credit: fridgeirsson

Take a P&O ferry to Rotterdam and head north, says John Hillman, and you’ll soon reach Germany’s wild and dramatic North Sea Frisian islands. There you’ll discover a land of mudflats, crashing waves, fine sandy beaches and abundant wildlife that was also the setting of the world’s first ever modern literary thriller.

The Frisian Islands consist of four large islands and ten smaller ones, or inlets. Situated high on Germany’s coast near the Danish border in the Wattenmeer National Park, they are known as the Jewels of the North Sea.

The combined beauty of marshlands, vast sand dunes and unspoilt countryside creates a tangible atmosphere of the remote and the romantic; nature at play beneath endless acres of open sky.

It was along these shores that Erskine Childers took the inspiration to write his famous 1903 thriller The Riddle of the Sands, navigating the rugged coastline with his brother Henry, on their thirty foot cutter Vixen he hatched the plot involving a pair of friends who accidentally discover a secret German plan to invade Britain.

The book was a roaring success. Not only has it never been out of print, and was made into a 1979 film starring Michael York and Simon MacCorkindale, Winston Churchill credits it with being an important motivator of public opinion, which allowed the British Government to establish naval bases in various North Sea coastal regions of Britain.

Today the Frisian Islands are still a favourite holiday destination for sailing enthusiasts, cyclists and birdwatchers, as well as being a source of inspiration to the many photographers and artists who flock each summer to capture the area’s extraordinarily magical light.

With strong tides and unpredictable weather sailing holidays, although incredible rewarding, are only recommended to experienced mariners. For the rest of us the islands remain an area of outstanding natural beauty worth visiting for the picturesque thatched villages and wild coastlines alone.

Northern Germany and the Frisian Islands are easily reached by car from P&O Ferries ports of Rotterdam, Zeebrugge or Calais as part of an adventurous driving holiday. Go on, explore your continent!

After traversing its waves since 1987 you would think that P&O Ferries knows the name of that stretch of water between Dover and Calais. It seems that The EU however has other ideas. John Hillman reports.

As I walked across the Millennium Bridge one morning, over the River Thames, I felt a slight tremor underfoot and feared that the ‘wobbly bridge’ had once again fallen foul of its well documented design fault. Could this mean another year of damned closures whilst engineers attempt to make the most scenic river crossing in the world safe again?

Fortunately my concerns were somewhat eased as I glanced across to St Paul’s and saw that, far from the bridge wobbling, it was in fact London itself that shook like a detoxifying scoundrel. Oh just an earthquake then, that’s fine.

As an aside, I once experienced a similar moving sensation whilst on a P&O Ferries’ ferry from Dover to Calais; however after raising the alarm I was informed by the ship’s steward that the moving sensation was a result of us being at sea, which wobbles too, apparently.

Anyway, the quake has of course been hushed up, for its epicentre (I am reliably told) has been traced to the very spot in St Paul’s Cathedral where Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson lies entombed.

This strange turn of events remained an unexplained mystery; however after some careful research I can reveal that sources close to Her Majesty believe it to be recent machinations in Brussels that are to blame.

The realisation of the Trans-Manche Zone, by a rather Orwellian sounding group called the INTERREG Programme, means that not only has the English Channel been officially renamed the Anglo-French Pond, but most shocking of all, it has resulted in the creation of an entirely new region which merges Kent and Cornwall with Normandy and Lille, all presided over by Alain Le Vern, a French socialist president.

A French Socialist President, with dominion over Royal Tunbridge Wells? And there I was wondering why an earthquake would emanate from Lord Nelson’s tomb. Meanwhile my journalistic counterpart in Paris tells me that a strange cackling sound can be heard wafting eerily out of Napoleon’s Gallic grave, and drifting off slowly down the River Seine. Strange times indeed.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

This coming Saturday 20th March, England fans will be belting it out, urging Steve Borthwick’s team on against an unbeaten France in the finale to this years’ Six Nations. Tomas Mowlam weighs up their chances.

Things are tight at the top of the table, with Les Rosbifs in third place behind Ireland. If England could beat France, and Ireland lost to Scotland, England could take second place. More importantly however they could trample all over French dreams of taking their first Grand Slam since 2004.

(A victory for England, and an Irish hammering of the Scots could still see the trophy return to its rightful home – Dublin.)

England won’t have the comfort of Twickenham; instead they’ll be in the fortress of French rugby, the Stade de France. England have the better form however, having beaten France in every major game since 2006 Six Nations, including a 34-10 tanning of les bleus at Twickenham last year.

One of the main French dangers to England’s hopes is Mathieu Bastareaud; the 22-year-old, squat, squashed-face centre has proved a wrecking ball of a player, capable of exceptional speed and brute force.

England is not short on talent however, and the French coach Marc Lievremont told press: “We know that this English team is capable of playing better. They have not shown that so far in the tournament, or if they have, only at intermittent intervals.

“It is imperative we prepare well for their visit and that they will be at their best, we also have to recover from this match well and convince ourselves that we are facing a superb team.”

To win in the Stade de France, England needs pace, as the slow ball in the back row turned the Scottish game into a joyless, try-less mess. And if England hasn’t quite shown the pace of play in previous games, the fact that they are playing the old enemy should be enough to see some outstanding rugby on 20th March. So hop on the ferry and get yourself to Paris, it’s sure to be a party.

Image Credit: Frederic Humbert

Why on earth would the French be trying to claim Calais as English? Peter Moore investigates

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On the first day of her last year in her miserable reign as Queen of England, Mary Tudor – or Bloody Mary, as she was to be remembered – woke up to discover that Calais had been lost to the French.

It was a desperate blow. Calais was to the Tudors what Gibraltar became to Georgians during the empire-building days later on. It was a toe-hold on the Continent: a place for plotting, for trading, for spying and for peacocking. And in 1558 – for the first time in a good few hundred years – it was gone.

‘When I am dead and opened,’ the terminal Queen complained to her doctor shortly before she died, ‘you shall find Philip (the Spanish King and her husband) and Calais lying in my heart.’

Any sensible person would have concluded that Calais had been lost forever. But four hundred and fifty two years later, in one of this year’s more peculiar twists, a number of French politicians are attempting to realign Calais’ identity as ‘British.’ And what’s more, they are doing it without being asked.

Their motivation for such an odd move is to cash in on the expected millions that will be accompanying the Olympic Games into London in 2012. Calais, a number of town councillors have asserted, is a perfect destination for hundreds of travelling athletes, fans and journalists.

‘We are the south of England and because we’re the south of England it’s normal that we would associate ourselves with this extraordinary event,’ claimed Dominique Dupilet, the chairman of the Pas de Calais regional council.

Mr. Dupilet is at the centre of a drive to rebrand the town in anticipation of the Games. New hotels are being constructed alongside expensive training facilities, bars and restaurants.

Moreover, Mr. Dupilet contends that as Calais is perfectly served by a continuous flow of ferries and trains that it’s excellently positioned to carry visitors into London in record speed.

‘It will take no more time to get to events than if you’re in North London,’ he told the Times.

What might appear to be a rather far-fetched plan has already achieved a touch of validity after officials signed a contract with Chad’s boxing, wrestling, judo and athletics teams. More recently the canoe and kayak teams from Uzbekistan and Senegal also added their names to the list.

It is a peculiar story and one which reminds us that national identities are no longer fixed – but fluid. We now live in a world where a city or town might be willing to swap it allegiance or identity for a short space of time in return for a few pennies and a bit of attention.

Goodness knows what Mary Tudor would make of that.

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image credit: LordFerguson

It’s fast, unpredictable and very violent, but we just can’t seem to get enough of the old smash and grab fest that is The RBS Six Nations. John Hillman looks forward to the upcoming slug off.

Saturday week sees the start of Six Nations Rugby, the biggest event in International Rugby after the World Cup. Rugby fans are about to be treated to six weeks of bone crunching tackles and breathtaking displays of warrior spirit.

And with the rugby world descending on New Zealand for the World Cup, in 2011, all eyes will be on the approaching Six Nations in the hope of seeing some genuine world cup winning form from one of the home nations.

It all kicks off at Croke Park, in Dublin, on Saturday 6th February and ends with a classic cross-channel bruise fest, France v England, on 20th March. There’ll be a few victory songs sung on the P&O Channel crossing that weekend we hope.

So what can we expect? Will the champions, Ireland, manage to defend their title? Can Scotland improve on one win out of five? How will England’s Martin Johnson deal with having to rebuild his team, whilst remaining marginally competitive? Or will Johnny Wilkinson come back to rescue us from the doldrums? Do we all hope that France gets continually humiliated throughout the tournament? Of course we do.

With Ireland and England both travelling to France, rugby fans may be interested in taking advantage of P&O Ferries’ special deals. You can take a car and up to nine passengers over to Calais from just £20 each way – that’s under £2.25 each. And while on board you stock up on loads of duty-paid beers, wines and spirits.

Of course you could take the plane, but that would hardly be in the spirit of Henry V and Agincourt and all that, now would it?

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Image Credit: Picasaweb