The Zoo

When Stu was out of town last weekend, Abbey and I decided to go to the zoo, or Tiergarten as it is known here in Deutschland.  Tiergarten is, incidentally, one of my favorite German words.  I love the literal translation... "Animal Garden."  If you are a kid and learning a language, you really don't need a definition... it's all there in the word! 

When we arrived it was super packed because it was a beautiful, sunny day.  Germans love beautiful, sunny days because they are somewhat of a rarity, so they do everything they can to be outside.  I made a bee-line to find the animal map and our main objective was one of the first things to see:

Abbey loves giraffes.  She has a stuffed one (that I lost but managed to replace) that she carries around by the neck.  It's awesome.  She loved seeing the giraffes.  She laughed, and waved and pointed and stared and looked at me.  And then she laughed, and waved and pointed and stared and said, "Dah-tee," which is her way of saying, "I like you!" 

We walked around a bit more and finally made it to the kinderzoo (the kid's zoo), which was at the very far end of the zoo.  The zoo near us is very nice because you can get pretty close to the animals.  It is great for little ones because they can really see the animals well.  The kinderzoo was similar to an American petting zoo... you could go into the goat pin and they had pigs and bunny rabbits.  When we went into the goat pin, Abbey wasn't quite sure what to think of it.  She was laughing and enjoying it, but she was a bit scared and holding on to me very tightly!  We enjoyed a nice lunch (in the wrong spot.  As I walked a bit further I discovered a wonderful Biergarten with a huge playground at the top of the hill.  Rats).  Then it was homeward bound!

A note about German safety laws.  I have been amused on numberous instances about the lack of precaution taken at times.  They definitely do not have the regulations that we have in the US, in terms of pedestrians having to cross to the other side of the street if there is work being done on sidewalk, etc.  I am not sure if the pictures will show what I am referring to, but I had to try to capture this.  There were some big bulls in a pin and a big tall metal fence (as expected) between the bulls and the pedestrian walk.  As we got closer, I noticed that a man was bringing food in for them.  During his feeding process, he left the gate open.  Wide open.  Awesome German safety regulations.  I decided to maintain a bit of a distance, from the open gate of an animal that is known for stampedes.  

After the gate was closed, we walked around and turned right after their pin, and this is what I saw.  The big tall, metal fence separating the bulls from the pedestrian area abruptly ended and it was replaced with a foot-high wooden rail that Abbey could have stepped over.  Even more awesome.  I laughed and of course took a picture.

They did seem a lot more interested in their food than anything else. 

Wish I could have taken more pictures of Abigail enjoying the animals, but it was difficult as I was holding her most of the time and couldn't operate the camera while doing so.  She waved at a lot more animals and said, "Dah-tee!" numerous times.  Aside from the giraffes, the bunny rabbits up close and personal seemed to be a big hit.