Squee Time

The Zoo. In spring. Baby animals. Squee!

OK... so these babies were, for the most part, born last spring and summer. But they're still babies and still adorable.

In all my trips to Berlin, this was my first visit to the Zoologisher Garten, a mere 3 stops on the subway from P's apartment. Given a beautiful springlike day, and also given that she hopes/plans to move soon, the time seemed ripe.

The line to get in was relatively long -- though P says she's seen it longer-- but it didn't take very long to pay and gain admission. Family groups always make lines seem longer. It also helped that P noticed them open another line. 

Once inside, the crowd spread hither and thither, so the grounds never felt particularly crowded. And spring flowers were out in full force.

Crocus everywhere.

My first azalea sighting.

We opted to purchase the cheaper tickets and bypass the aquarium, since we knew we wouldn't have time to see everything and I'd recently been to SeaLife Berlin. An iguanodon would have been worth seeing, though. Just sayin'...

In the center of the park, I spotted another gray heron. Then I spotted a whole lot more of them. The treetops were littered with their nests.

We finally found some of the crowd when we visited the zoo restaurant for lunch. It was hard to find a seat, but the food was good. M had a foot-long curreywurst and P and I had schnitzel. It's humbling when a zoo canteen makes better schnitzel than you do.

I was amused by their play on the word "gastronomy". Gast means guest in German.

We found the rest of the crowd on the playground.

I wasn't too disappointed that the ground hogs were hibernating. I can see them in my backyard anytime, unfortunately.

I particularly liked the display of mountain goats. This was one of several.

And while I'm not a big fan of monkeys, the orangutans have a quiet dignity and extremely expressive faces. This old patriarch also has an impressive coat of hair.

And, of course, there's the babies.

These two are the same species. I'm guessing the darker one is younger.

This hippo IS a baby. It's much smaller than the others. Really.

Late afternoon we headed to Potsdasmer Platz and the Sony Center for an English language showing of American Hustle. 

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. The theater is a great place to see a movie -- it's where they have the red carpet events in Berlin. But I could have waited for the DVD.

Oh well... Hakuna Matata.