Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Schlapanitz




In the 1970s we had lived in Germany and had wanted to visit Austerlitz. However at that time it was behind the “Iron Curtain” and we were not able to get permission. Our Holts coach tour of Portugal and Spain had been a great introduction to that area, but they did not offer tours of Austerlitz. So when we heard about a travel company called Midas Battlefield Tours who offered a four day Walking Tour of Austerlitz we quickly signed up.






Our last walk in Spain had been curtailed by bad weather, but this was heavy rain on a new scale. These four days would be memorable for heavy rain, thick mud and remarkably cheerful and friendly fellow battlefield walkers.





Midas Tours was a small company who specialized in battlefield tours. There were just 18 on this tour and Jan was pleasantly surprised to find that there were three other ladies.


Early on 3 September 1998 we left UK in heavy rain and on arrival at Vienna airport it was still raining. We were less impressed to find our transport would be a mini coach with a trailer, none of your luxury coaches here. But it was considerably less than a similar Holts Tour. The group were also much younger than your average Holts Tour, and most had done previous tours with Midas.






We had a comfortable night in the Brunn Holiday Inn we set off for the battlefield determined to ignore the light rain. Our first stop was the town of Schlapanitz, which is close to both The Santon and the Zuran Hill which was Napoleons headquarters during the battle. The Russian looking church was used as a hospital by the French during the battle.





Schlapantiz is shown just to the right of The Santon. There are many different spellings of towns and villages, but I have chosen the one shown above to avoid confusion..




The house which Marshal Soult used as his headquarters is now a museum. Unfortunately it was closed when were there. We were disappointed to miss the exhibits, but also an opportunity to spend an hour or so in the dry and allow the rain to stop.





From the town we set off across the fields to an area behind Zuran Hill called The Gravelpit. This was the area where Napoleon spent the night before the battle, surrounded by the Imperial Garde.




This painting shows Napoleon at The Gravelpit with his generals. It was from here that he set off to ride along the French positions, prompting the famous torch light procession which so alarmed the Russians on the Pratzen opposite.




There was no shelter near The Gravelpit, so we just tried very hard to ignore the heavy rain as we had our first briefing. By now we were all pretty wet, but there was no complaints and everyone seemed to be enjoying the experience. Perhaps like us, they were used to such weather from previous tours.



This is the battlefield map issued by Midas. It is an excellent map, showing the exact site of all of the major events of the battle. It is a commercial map, not one made by Midas, but I have never seen it on sale. If you plan to visit the battlefield I would strongly recommend you get hold of one if you can.





Alan Rooney was our guide for the tour. He came well prepared with his notes in waterproof sheets. His cheerful attitude, and determination to complete the tour whatever the weather, did much to help keep the morale of the group high.




Having completed our first stop, it was time to continue across the fields towards Zurlan Hill, with a very wet Jan in the lead.

4 comments:

  1. Good Morning Paul,

    What an interesting account of your visit to the Austerlitz battlefield! The drawing, old prints, and photos were icing on the cake too. Hope you and Jan dried out quickly that evening and were able to enjoy some of the local "medicinal" beverages, which always seem to help at the end of a long day.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes Schwartz

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  2. Hi Stokes

    I am glad that you enjoyed the blog.

    I particularly like working on the battlefield walks. Its a bit like looking through old photograph albumns, in fact its exactly like it because thats what I do. It always brings back the memories. Always good ones - whatever the weather.

    Fortunately Jan and I did lots of training by hill walking in the highland mountains, where we always got more than our fair share of rain.

    It was a very wet day, but being the first day everyone was keen as mustard and just kept going. We walked all morning, and ended up at the Post House for lunch. We had a Santon Cannonball (goulash in a large bread loaf) washed down with bottles of wine around a roaring fire. One of the most enjoyable meals I have ever had. And it proved impossible to get everyone out again until the rain had stopped. So we missed out the cavalry melee and finished the day at The Santon.

    One of the good things about walking with a large group is that you are much less likely to give in to bad weather. Mind we were a very sorry bunch when we arrived back at the Holiday Inn!

    regards

    Paul

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  3. Gosh that looks v wet! I have mentioned on your blog that my father has been on lots of Holts tours but aparently for a number of years they did not do European napoleonic tours to Germany etc and left it to a company called Grapeshot tours. These have just ended as the owners were I believe quite elderly but my father was a great fan which is all the more annoying as he has little interest in the napoleonic era. Grapeshot however organised better than average hotels, great food and wine and congenial small groups. This included a coffee/alcohol break at 11am each day. They also supplied a small folder for each tour in faux leather packed full with background information, maps, photos etc. Ex army organisation. I grabbed these off dad for my library. He went with them a couple of times to austria and the czech republic. I do hope you managed to get to the splendid military museum in Vienna. I'm sure he went in mid winter to austerlitz as there was a re-enactment.

    Regards,
    Guy

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  4. Hi Guy

    I remember a company called Grapeshot tours. I am not sure, but I think they might have become Midas Tours. I rember that we spent a lot of time trying to find a tour company that did the German battlefields, and Midas was the only one.

    If Holts did one we would have used them, because we had been so impressed with our visit to Portugal and Spain.

    Midas was certainly a little cheaper, but they also had a much more "get your boots muddy" approach, which Jan and I really appreciated. Holts would take you to the middle of the field in the coach and you would only have to walk a few feet for the photo opportunity. Midas would walk you throug a muddy field for an hour for the same photo opportunity. To be honest I preferred the Midas approach.

    We have been to the military museum in Vienna twice, second time on this trip. It is the most impressive Napoleonic collection I have ever seen. There is a large hall devoted to the Napoleonic period and I recall how impressive it was as you entered.

    Austerlitz was fought on 2 December 1805 and they have a large reenactment each year. Apparently a lot of French reenactors spend the week in the stables of the Post House each year. That is the subject of next weeks blog.

    If I have given any impression that Midas is not as good as Holts it was not intentional. They are certainly different, but both are excellent. And for those of us who really enjoy walking the ground Midas is actually better.

    regards

    Paul

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