After a wonderful welcome at the Airport with my godson (who's growing up so incredibly fast 💗) and buying an Audi (definitely smaller than my Jeep...), it was time for one relaxing day - before further prep for the move continued.
We decided to visit the Hanover Zoo (it was my Mom's birthday so a perfect occasion) which - and I've visited a couple of different zoos in the last years - I still think is one of the most well made & beautiful zoos out there.
Starting at the Serengeti portion, we visited zebras, antelopes, hippos, flamingos and even caught sight of some new born babies.
As the day wasn't really busy, there was nearly no waiting time so after the first boat ride - with beautiful views of all the animals from a different perspective - we directly jumped on for a second ride.
A new addition to this portion of the zoo caught my eye - a petting area with big and baby goats. Turns out that because of the relative calmness of the day they were pretty hungry and quite demanding to get as much food as they can from the bag I had bought.
After the exhibit of giraffes and lions, a new path brought us to the ape mountain which included all kind of apes from chimpanzees to gorillas and also included a small rainforest house.
Leaving the ape portion, a mining tunnel brought us to the next location - Yukon Bay - which resembles a small coastal town somewhere in the northern part of Canada, including a historic locomotive, bison, wolves, colorful little wooden huts & a full blown harbor where the polar bear, penguins and seals lived.
Next stop was surprisingly quiet this time - normally the Indian temple is not only inhibited by tigers, snakes and monkeys but also by the huge herd of elephants. However it looked like they were changing their training methods and therefore the elephants only stayed in their smaller, private quarters.
We passed the kangaroo and wombat territory pretty fast this time as we were eager for a late lunch. The traditional German farm's restaurant turned out to be a really good choice - my vegetarian carrot & potato dish with fresh herbs and sunflower seeds was delicious.
After an espresso (against the jetlag tiredness) we went back to the Australian portion but the wombat was again nowhere too be seen - seems like they enjoy their tunnel homes too much ...
The visit ended with nice impressions of special breeds of chicken, pigs, cows & horses in the farm exhibit - baby chickens had just hatched and I saw the tiniest little baby bunnies you can imagine.
