Berlin, Germany - Part 2

Saturday

On Saturday morning we took the underground out to the Berlin Zoo, in the west of the city. The day started a little grey, which was good as it probably kept some of the crowds away, but it cleared up later in the morning and was warm and sunny. We were so excited about our visit, as we had heard that the Berlin Zoo is one of the biggest and best zoos in the world. With over 1,400 different species and 14,000 animals the zoo presents the most comprehensive collection of species in the world.

We were keen to see some animals we had never seen before, including the famous polar bears. A new polar bear was born at Berlin Zoo in December 2006 and was named Knut. He has taken on celebrity status in Germany and is the zoo's biggest draw card.

First stop, however, was the lions' den. There were two lionesses and two cubs roaming about the grassy banks when we arrived and we were able to get some great photos (see below) as we were only metres away from them! Inside the "Predator House" we saw a whole range of wild cats. There were two leopards and two very cute cubs, one of which kept jumping all over its mother - mum did not look impressed (apologies for quality of photo of leopard cub; it was the best we could do). We also saw a tiger, a puma and a beautiful black panther. The male lion is kept separate from the other lions (we assume so he doesn't eat the cubs) and we saw him pacing up and down his cage as well. A fine beast.

Next stop was the panda bear enclosure. They have one panda bear, who doesn't seem to mind being on its own. It was happily chewing on some bamboo in the corner when we arrived, but it soon got up and performed for the fans - there was definitely some attention seeking going on! We returned to the panda later in the day for its feeding time. It was given a big chunk of watermelon, some other chopped fruit, more bamboo and a giant pretzel!!!

The apes enclosure was pretty exciting. The chimpanzees were about to be fed when we turned up and one of them was pretty worked up. Someone in the crowd was obviously annoying him and he started jumping up and down and then charged at the glass wall separating the chimps from the crowd of people watching, crashing into it at a fair rate of knots. A couple of people close to the wall got a hell of a fright! We watched the rather aggressive chimps being fed and then we went next door to see the gorillas, who were a lot more chilled out. We had not seen gorillas before - those guys are huge!!!

After a very solid lunch in the zoo cafe, we went in search of the bears. The Berlin Zoo is seriously massive. We did a whole lot of walking and we were knackered by the end of the day! We eventually found the polar bears and we were very impressed. There were four polar bears in the enclosure, not counting Knut, who is kept in a separate space. Three of them were looking pretty lazy but one was pacing back and forth as if on patrol - very amusing. We felt privileged to have seen polar bears up close but we were a little concerned that their enclosure was nothing like their natural habitat. Their enclosure was a big rocky hill, surrounded by murky green water. It appeared there had been no effort to give them a cold area to live in, which was disappointing.

Just next to the polar bears were the brown bears, which were probably our favourite animals! We timed our visit to coincide with their feeding time. One of the bears was obviously hungry, as he was sitting on the edge of the rocks waiting for the zoo-keepers to arrive with the food, occasionally standing on his hind legs to get a better view. When the food eventually arrived, the bears were treated to a few whole fish, lettuce leaves, apples, carrots and some walnuts. We were impressed with their healthy diet! They ate the apples by stomping on them with a front paw to crush them and then eating the pieces off the ground. It kept us amused for a while.

We visited Knut, the baby polar bear, who strangely enough was pacing back and forth just like one of the fully grown bears was doing in the other enclosure. Knut is quite big now but still very playful and seemed to enjoy the attention from the big crowd.

During our visit we also saw wolves, elephants, giraffes, zebras, African wild dogs, orangutans, hippopotami, seals, penguins and about a dozen different types of monkey. We had a great time and would love to go back! Definitely pack your walking shoes though!

After our zoo visit, we had a look at the nearby shopping area on Tauentzienstrasse. The street is packed with shops and it was buzzing with people - Berlin's answer to Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon! In the middle of Tauentzienstrasse is a really nice sculpture, which looks like broken links in a chain that are about to join up...pretty cool whatever it is...see photo below.

The Kaiser William Memorial Church is located in the centre of the Breitscheidplatz, a square at the end of the Tauentzienstrasse. The original church on the site was built in the 1890s. It was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1943. The damaged spire of the old church has been retained in its broken state and its ground floor has been made into a memorial hall in honour of the Kaiser William, the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling from 1888 to 1918. A new church and a separate belfry with an attached chapel, were built between 1959 and 1963 next to the ruins of the old church.



































Leopard
cub
















Black
panther







































Hippo about
to dive in













Polar bear
on patrol













Knut














Big upper
body...














Brown
bear














Waiting
for lunch















Worth
the wait













Entertaining
Panda



































Sculpture
on Tauent-
zienstrasse















Kaiser
William
memorial
church