Napoleon on the spot

In jan. 2012 I visited the last exibition for this moment in the Netherlands about Napoleon.
It was at the Schiemanshuis in Rotterdam.
Napoleon stayed here from 25 till 27 october 1811. He was 'on the spot' so to say.
All the printings I saw were caricatures on Napoleon.
The most from England (of course!), but also some from Holland.
Below you see some of these.
The last picture are the keys of Rotterdam as offered to Napoleon.

Vilnius

My visit to Vilnius (Luthania) was succesfull.
We made a nice trip, my sun and me.
Look at my latetst website  www.roelkvos.nl/vilnius
You see the objects I 'scored'.
They are all from the French book  Le Guide Napoleon (2005).
I consider this book as a travelling companion.

Vilnius

In week 42 (Monday 17th till Fryday 21th of october I will travel with my youngest sun (he is 31) to Vilnius (Litouwen). I am invited by a Dutchman, who is living there. He knows a lot about Napoleon in Vilnius. He has like me made a trip to the Beresina and Borodino. I give him some advices.
In Vilnius you can see a lot of 'objects' about Napoleon. He was there during the start of the Campaingn of Russia in 1812. So I hope to see and to be for a while on the top of the hill besouth of Kaunas where our great man crossed the river Njemen. Along my guide it must still be there!
The first 'object' is the hotel in Vilnius where we stay. It is a cloister, where wounded were traeted.
We hope to see this all!

Czar Peter The Great of Russia

During the investigations on my motortrips on the trail of Napoleon Bonaparte I met in Zaandam (north of Amsterdam) with the little house of Peter the Great (1672 - 1725). He was the first Russian Czar who was interested in all the things abroad. So he went to Holland to learn the skills of a carpenter in shipbuilding.
He was incognito and he stayed in 1697 for 8 days in this little wooden house, existing of two rooms, two windows, a stove place and a little wooden comparment for sleeping.

After that days he was unhappily recognized. He felt sorry about that!

The litlle house is now (2011) covered with a stone house for protection.

Of course a lot of celebrated visitors were here. Between 1806 and 1810 King Louis Napoleon, the first King of Holland, entered this house. His brother Napoleon I did also on the 13th of October 1811.
After him all the Dutch kings and queens wrote their names in the book of visitors!

GPS in Google Earth: N 52 26.244  E 4 49.413



Motorcycling

In July, September and November 2011 there will be the next numbers of the new Dutch magazine about Napoleon. (Napoleon in Nederland 1811 - 2011).
In sept/okt. 2011 it is 200 years ago that he visited Holland, then a part of his empire. He was the ruler those days and he wanted to inspect Holland as a country ready to defend against England.

Divers cities in The Netherlands have exhibitions about this trip. This all is mentioned in that new Dutch magazine. You can also see the routes he took. Napoleon had made a trip of about 775 km by coach.
He also travelled over water. He did so in about five weeks.
A wellknown motorcycler in Holland has comes with the idee to make motorcycleroute of this.
He visited me, got aware that I am a rider too and we accorded that I shall make the routes and program them in the Garmin GPS. I produce also the special subscriptions and anecdotes that are known.

So I have work to do! But this is nice work! First we travel all the routes by camper (I have already made them in the computer with Mapsource). Then we cycle by bike (not: motorbike!) in the cities and take original pictutes for publishing. Later I shall ride them accurate for controll on my motorbike. I have a BMW 1100 RT.

Horses

In my research about the Campaing in Russia I discovered following:

During the period 15 Aug – 14 Nov. 1812 Napoleon rode 14 different horses.
Here are their names:

Emir
Roitelet
Moscou
Embelli
Courtois Le Cid
Tauris
Lutzelberg
Turcoman
Coquet Kurde
Varsovie
Montevideo
Bavarois
Vineux Linotte
Gonzalve

Source: Louis Garrot: Quel roman que ma vie! (1947 French)

In English now!

I myself have translated my website 'Napoleon in Russia' in English.
I know, I am a Dutchman, so it will be full of mistakes.
But I hope you understand what I want to tell you!

The address is:

www.roelkvos.nl/reis1812engels



Roel Vos before the little museum in Malojaroslavetz