Visiting Celle - Part 2 - Waterloo diorama and Celle's city centre

Part 1 is here.

Although it was very exciting and interesting to roam between the historical exhibition pieces the centrepiece of the exhibition was a huge, two-piece diorama of the battle of Waterloo. It was built by a group of German wargamers and consists of about 15,000 28mm miniatures. Frank one of the organisers gave some details about the diorama on his blog 'Figuren und Geschichten' but honestly you don't get an idea of its size when you haven't seen it. Thus with no more ado to the pictures (please click to enlarge):

Viktoria and me observing the French cavalry charge.

French heavy cavalry (Carabiniers) on the charge.

The attack from the French point of view.

Colonel von Ompteda and the 5th Battaillon KGL meeting their fate.

The same square with the horsemen advancing.

A British square with artillerymen sheltered in the centre.

The same from another angle.

Waves and waves of cavalry.

The other part of the diorama: D'Erlon's charge.

Picton's division facing the attack and Ponsonby's Union Brigade preparing the countercharge.

95th Rifles occupying the sand pit near La Haye Sainte.

Besides the masses of troops they had a couple of nice scenic pieces: Artillery trains, ambulances, command vignettes and such stuff. Unfortunately most of them were placed far from the edges of the diorama or more or less poorly illuminated. Thus most of them were nearly impossible to photograph without tripod which I didn't bring to Celle or flash which wasn't allowed inside the museum. But some examples anyway:

French ambulance.

Another French ambulance.

British sqaure in 1:1 scale positioned in the entrance hall.

After nearly two hours in the Waterloo exhibition with set sail to leave the Bomann Museum behind but our daughter Viktoria insisted to see the local history exhibition as well. At least on the fly. Uterly surprised we agreed but honestly this attention span for a five year old commanded my respect. However they have some nice pieces about the local rural life of the last centuries there and above all some interesting pieces from the 'Lüneburger Gruppe' a group of archaeological finds from the Bronze Age.

Finally we left the museum after more than two and a half exciting hours. But Celle offers more than just the Bomann Museum. Its city centre has wonderful timber-framed buildings and a lovely pedestrian area. Although medieval architecture isn't my cup of tea it must be heaven for those more interested in terrain and scenery:

At the end we stopped for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake in a lovely café near the old townhall. This really topped this wonderful day although weather got worse in the afternoon. A rather heavy rainstorm racked over Celle and with sheer luck we got back to the car dry. Unfortunately we had no chance to take pictures of Celle's nice castle but at least we have a reason to come back though...