Heidelberg Zoo

So, it turns out that Heidelberg has a great zoo and it is about a 5-minute walk away from our apartment. I am not the hugest fan of zoos (I'm not exactly sure why), so we had not been there yet, even though we'd passed it on the bus almost every day. Our new friends love the zoo and asked us to join them there on Sunday and it was a wonderful experience! We spent the entire day together and the kids and adults had a blast. Moreover, it was one of the first nice days. The sun was shining and we even saw flowers poking out of the ground! Spring!!!

Our friends Kristyn and Dave and their daughter Irene picked us up at our house and we walked over to the zoo together. Here the kids are looking surly, but I think this has to do more with my lack of photography skills than anything else.

Our first stop was the sea lion show and it was great. The kids had front-row seats.

The sea lions were fun to watch and they did their tricks right in front of us.

The zoo had lots of animals, of course, but I was particularly impressed with some of the ways they tried to teach the kids something. At the elephant exhibit, for instance, they had models of human and elephant hearts and visitors could compare the sizes and heart rates of the two species. Here's Alex exploring the hearts.

They had a petting zoo and the kids had fun feeding a brushing the goats.

We were there for the gorilla feeding and saw zebras and camels, but in the end, I was most impressed with some of the amazing playgrounds at the zoo. The kids had a ridiculous amount of fun exploring them as well. Here they are climbing on the ropes,

and jumping the trampoline.

But Alex's favorite by far was this merry-go-round. The kids got it to go really really fast.

Look how much fun they're having!

In the end, there was not much left to do, but try on the masks in the zoo store. We did not end up going home with the lion face, but with a lion washcloth instead, but this picture is too funny not to share.

After the zoo, our friends came back to our place for tea and cookies and even more playtime. What a wonderful day!