After seeing so much on the first day of our tour of Berlin, we took it easy the following day by visiting the Berlin Zoo and aquarium. Both the Princess and Zippy were happy to have something more interesting to look at, rather than being dragged around museums.
We started walking around the zoo, looking at the animals, headed toward the polar bears, because it was feeding time for them not long after we got there. The kids got a kick out of seeing the polar bears jump in the water and catch their food, and one polar bear kept standing on his hind legs to catch the food in midair:
There is a small part of the zoo fenced off for kids to go inside and feed the animals, which include goats, sheep, Shetland ponies and donkeys. We fed the sheep:
then washed our hands and went to get a snack for ourselves.
We've visited a number of zoos here in Europe, but the zoo in Berlin was the first time we have ever seen a panda bear, so this was a big highlight:
Once we had seen all of the animals in the zoo, we went to the aquarium.
Look! We found Nemo. Plus lots of other fish, snakes and reptiles. The aquarium didn't take that long to get through, so we still had time left before dinner. Not far outside of the Elephant Gate is the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche (Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church).
The church was originally built in the 1890's, but was badly damaged during a bombing raid in 1943. A portion of the ruins were kept as a reminder of the devastation caused by the bombings, and alongside it a new church was constructed.
After visiting the church, we had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (I know, how American of us. For the record, it wasn't my idea. I think their food is awful), then headed back to the hotel.
By our third day of travel, we had already seen so many of the sights we intended to visit, so we headed to the Deutches Technikmuseum to check out the exhibits. Our hope was that the trains and planes would actually hold the Princess's interest. No such luck. There was a nice little exhibit on textiles, though, that I did manage to see without interruptions.
From the museum, we went to the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz to eat lunch. The restaurant, Café Josty , was rather overpriced and the food was nothing spectacular, but the view was great. It was warm enough to sit outside and eat, and watch the fountain.
Following lunch, it was on to the Berliner Dom (if you're interested in what it is or the history, you can read about it here, since this post is already a bit wordy).
And that concludes our visit to Berlin. I hope you enjoyed being a virtual tourist. I promise to be back soon with knitting content.
Recent Comments