The Berlin Zoo - Lions and Tigers And…Penguins…?

Our second day in Berlin! In order to keep peace with the family I need to parcel out the activities and divide up everything accordingly. This means finding a balance between museums, shopping and the “fun stuff”. I’ll help you narrow it down - our trip to the zoo wasn’t meant for either me or my wife (although we both enjoyed it). But that’s o-k, because I’d heard that the Berlin Zoo is the largest in the world.

Funny how my perspective of zoos has evolved over time: when I was my daughter’s age it was all about the animals. A chance to get up close and take pictures and maybe if no one was watching; toss a peanut to a chimpanzee. Now I sympathize with these creatures and wish they were out in the wild. But acknowledging that means they might be killed. One more animal gone on the road to extinction. So maybe it is better these animals have a home at this zoo and many others like it.

Having said that, the zoo in downtown Berlin was founded in 1841. It is the largest zoo in the world with over 74-acres and some 2,000 species of animals. This is actually the larger of two zoos in Berlin. Remembering that everything was once split up in two, there’s a smaller zoo on the East side. The downtown Zoo is smaller in terms of acreage, but has more animals, and is situated next door to the Berlin Aquarium. So between the zoo and the aquarium it’s an entire day to be sure. But we decide to take things one step at a time, so today it’s only the zoo - which by the way is open from 10am until 6pm and costs 8 euro each to get in. The headphones and language presentation we enjoyed the day before at the Pergamon Museum and Egyptian Exhibit are noticeably missing here. I know we’re only talking about animals, but hey - I’d like to know what is written on the info-cards at each cage! No sense worrying about it now. I’ll just make something up and hopefully amuse my daughter with my running commentary.