I went to Eastern Europe at the end of September, to meet with a long time net.friend (net.twin even!) of mine, who happened to be in the area. The weather was amazing, and it was a very relaxing break :) Photos are now up!
I got up nice and early again (I've been very good this holiday, the weather is too nice to be wasting the days in bed!
Breakfast was at 8, and then I checked out 8.30, retrieving my membership card, and making my way to Gorkistraße
My basic plan was to visit the Asisi Panometer, first, and in daylight I was able to find the tram stop!
I got on the tram to hauptbahnhof to get an idea of trams/busses, and while there decided to do zoo first since it was already open
At the zoo, I Visited the aquarium and then went on to Gondwanaland (where Heidi used to live)
I learned that Gondwana = original landmass continent of south america, africa, australia & antarctica
It was a great entrance tunnel, involving a journey through volcano, with interesting pieces in both German and English, and a nocturnal section, where I saw the habitat for the Opossums, noting the sign in memory of Heidi.
I went on a boat trip and then the walk through paths with plenty of interactive stuff in Deutsch and English
I had an expensive lunch at gondwanaland, but it was tasty. I did however pass on the orange juice: £3.90 for a small glass of it!!!!
I popped in to the Zoo shop to get a postcard of Heidi, and found that it does not take Mastercard or Visa Debit!! Erm!? I must ask Christine what that's all about.
I counted my change and forked out for an overpriced Heidi toy. I figure the zoo deserves some money for the great effort they put in to gondwanaland, it was a zoo within a zoo!
Wandered around via elephants, the tiger was people shy (I've found that big cats at zoos like to sleep a lot!)
Went through an enclosure where we could see red kangaroos observing the caged emus!
Onwards to Pongoland to be confronted with an assortment of apes: chimpanzees, monkeys, orangutans, baboons etc. Most were out in the sunshine enjoying their tree playgrounds.
The flamingos were in the sunshine, very bright pink, and then I found the second star of the zoo: a domestic cat sitting under a heat lamp on top of the mole rat display!
Got good photos of the giraffes, and then found the Lion's den.
Lions slept ... Till a recording of a male lion claiming to be boss was played.
Mr lion startled awake, prowled and growled, and then lay back down (flopped to ground in a clear show of can't be bothered. good egg! (And some good photos))
Found the giraffes after this, and got good vantage for photos, and then pictured great shot of a meerkat :)
The hyena wasn't laughing but did pose for the cameras :)
Quick stop to play with the diggers for kids only (Hinweis! Eltern haften für ihre Kindern!)
Emu emulating an Emu, and then then baboons!
Found the elusive red panda enclosure, photos were hard to come by: Red pandas don't hang about! One last question lingers: is Przewalski's horse, a horse?
1440 leave zoo. 5.5 hours of entertainment!
So glad I got day pass for transport, tram-sport is easy!
12 tram to Hbf, then 15 tram to Völkerschlachdenkmal. Quite a walk to Panometer though, especially after a day walking around the zoo!
I had forgotten to get cash out at hbf, Hope asisi accepts mastercard, but I doubt it, though, grrr
They don't! What a joke, a huge company like Mastercard, and Visa, and there's nowhere in the strongest economy in Europe that accepts them. Fortunately I had 10 EU cash
The exhibit lived up to expectations, the changing light and soundscape makes for an amazing experience! I decided to walk around the base to work out what some of the animals were, and came across Heidi the opossum! They had pasted over the original with a photo of Heidi!!.
I definitely recommend it as a full day out in Leipzig, zoo then panometer, as I recognised the animals in the painting which added a dimension to the viewing :)
Caught 16 back to hbf, much better route, and grabbed the RE train back to Dresden
Met with Wilma for dinner then sleep: 6am start tomorrow! Ugh!