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After the war, Leopold continued his military education. A fellow officer of those days remembers: "He was always very cool and reserved. We would get into discussions about anything from a bridge hand to the value of a certain weapon over a given terrain. We'd all hotly advance our opinions and rather expect to be hotly contradicted. Not Leopold. He would listen awhile, then suddenly hand down his judgment, and that was that. He would turn on his heel and walk away."
The officer continued: "Later on, when he was a colonel, I watched senior generals grind their teeth over the same kind of show. I'm not saying that Leopold's judgments were stupid; some, in fact, were very clever. But if you are an under-age colonel on war games and a general objects to your line of reasoning, you really ought to pay some attention. Lord knows Leopold has proved over & over again that he can, with the most precise logic, reason himself into some very stupid situations."
The same officer remembered Charles as a convivial comrade who expressed his opinions tentatively. In the messes he invented new drinks, accompanied by learned lectures on the glorious history of the various ingredients put into them. The morning after a late night of too many inventions, he would not only apologize to the officer of the guard but also to the palace concierge.
Dynastic Reasons. With father Albert and mother Elisabeth, Leopold went abroad on extensive travels. U.S. newsmen dubbed him "King Pokerface," noted his serious curiosity (sample: "Why do they call Ford cars Tin Lizzies?"). In the Sudan, Congo and East Indies, he studied colonial administration, wrote painstaking reports. He courted and won as bride the beautiful Princess Astrid of Sweden. He would pack a small bag, take a third-class coach from Brussels, suddenly pop up on the Swedish coast and head for the home of his blonde princess.
When Astrid docked at Antwerp aboard a Swedish warship, she raced down the gangway plank. Leopold charged up from the pier. They met in a wild embrace that sent a hundred thousand onlookers into a roar of approval. Within six months of the wedding, Astrid's popularity in the country rivaled that of her father-in-law, the King. She loved people and had a warm human touch. Leopold had chosen as wisely as any bourgeois nation could wish.
Charles, meanwhile, was in the shade. His easy way of taking a drink before lunch drew sniffs from Leopold, who still refuses even coffee, and sips wine only to be sociable. Charles' failure to take the royal business too seriously brought frowns from his father. He was sent, for example, to Paris to represent Belgium at the funeral of Poincare. He got to Paris, but somehow missed the funeral.
In his bachelor quarters at the Royal Palace in Brussels, the younger brother installed a small machine shop as a hobby. He kept fast sport cars, played the organ, collected modern paintings ("What I look for is the human quality").