We went to the Berlin Zoo today, which is patterned on the San Diego Zoo in that the animals' enclosures are not cages but rather habitats that are separated from visitors by deep moats. (They do make exceptions for poisonous snakes and things that can jump over said deep moats, and they haven't figured out how to display fish without aquariums...)
A few of the animals were especially... memorable. We befriended Knautschke, a replica of an actual hippo who first came to the Berlin Zoo in 1941, survived the madness of World War II (wandering the streets of Berlin for an intense and interesting few days when all hell broke loose) and finally died as the result of a spat with his own son, Nante, in 1997.
We quite enjoyed the petting zoo. Silly us, we went in thinking the animals were the ones who get petted.
And then there was the sadness of the OCD bear, a polar bear who swam very tight identical circular laps in front of the one-way glass window. It was adorable the first time, clever the second time, and really freaking disturbing and sad the 45th time. His ursine comrade had a different pattern: he stood still in the mouth of his cave, shifted his weight to the other paw, looked left, looked back, and repeated. Again and again and again and again and again. I read in the display case that the bears were given to the zoo after many years in the close confines of a circus tent, and are now receiving animal behavioral therapy. I don't think I want to go to the circus any more.
We saw a bunch of other cool stuff, too: we watched the lizards' lunchtime (live crickets - yum!) and saw baby condors, baby emus, a baby panda, baby goats, baby penguins, baby wolves, and a few things I didn't previously know existed (and their babies). I think you're never too old to marvel at the amazing diversity of God's creation. And their babies.
Tomorrow: Mallorca. And probably really no more internet access for a while.
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