Kinder Zoo

Tierpark Hellabrun has a Children's area that includes rides, a playground, and a petting zoo.
The biggest possible highlight for Lola was that she got to ride a pony. Since she is under 6 years old, an adult had to walk alongside her (that's Jeffrey, the adult). He asked her the pony's name and she promptly told him "Frankie". Henry had a blast in the petting zoo. The kid has No Fear. Here he is about to terrorize some geese. At one point I had to intervene...

This is the kinder, gentler Henry checking out some goats. They pretty much ignored him. One note: there were no staff in the petting zoo. Not a one. I thought it was pretty amazing that they'd trust that everything would just be okay with this environment of live animals, open water and young children. All I can figure is that there are fewer attorneys in Germany.

Now, one for my sister. Anyone who knows her knows that she grew up pretty much crazy for guinea pigs. She had a journal about them. Actually, it was a daily journal that she had to keep for school, but she mentioned guinea pigs daily. So, here's the deal, Aunt Elizabeth, the Munich Zoo has TWO guinea pig sections. One is indoor (seen below) and one is outdoor (seriously). The outdoor one a big maze that has a little section of hutches with water, and a little grain machine where you can buy pellets to feed the guinea pigs. It is under a big tree and is probably about the size of a two car garage and it is FULL of guinea pigs. I think that this is kind of its own little eco-system. It is pretty awesome. Forget Polar Bears. Come to our zoo to see Guinea Pigs.

Another totally American observation: they had American animals in this zoo--buffalo, for example. It struck me as funny.

Cruising

Henry just knows.

Check out the bench full of girls in the upper right.

He did.

Indications

Here are some clues that you are in a great zoo.
Let's take a peek:
A Yakitori Stand/Candy Store (in Munich Zoo):

Kinder Eis kaufen:

Biergarten WeissBier:

Zoo Review: Five Stars

Zoo

The Munich Tierpark was the first in the world to build natural settings for their animals, rather than cage them--pretty progressive for 1911 Germany. I wanted to check it out. Going to the Zoo is a pretty easy and engaging activity for everyone, even jetlagged, hungry, and cranky.


Highlights:

Anyway, if you can go, go:

Tierpark Hellabrunn
Der Zoo der Stadt Munchen
www.tierpark-hellabrunn.de

Kinderzoo Post Coming Soon! (Guinea pigs, Goats, Geese)
Biergarten Reviews forthcoming as well!

Bad Design

Why can there not be curb cuts on the path from the airport to the rental car?

Flight 709

We're lucky.

This is how our International flight turned out for us:

Sleeping Lola.

Sleeping Henry.

Swiss Alps in Sunshine.

Row 11

So here's how things settled in for the first leg of the trip. The airline gave us three seats together and one a row ahead. The poor stranger who would have had to sit with either of my children gratefully traded spots with my husband.

The kids did great from Cleveland to Philadelphia. Lola was a chatterbox and spoke loudly and clearly about EVERYTHING. Among her mentions, of the man seated ahead of her: "That guy has pokey hair." Why yes, yes he does. Do you like it? "No."

"Are we in Germany yet?"
Um. No. We're still on the tarmac in Cleveland.

"Are we in the air yet?"
Um. No. You'll see more clouds and fewer service vehicles.

"What's a service vehicle?"
Nevermind.

Import Export

This is how much stuff we're taking to Germany. Just to itemize: those are the kids, that's the sherpa husband, and you can count four check-in bags plus two car seats. This is actually less stuff than we took to Rome with only one kid two years ago. Regardless, it looks like we're taking too much stuff.

A note on the double stroller: absolutely essential to be able to strap down both kids. Excellent investment.