Zoo-Hoo!

Hemmingen and Hanover, Germany -- Rest Day

Hello All, Meg’s turn at the keyboard.  The day started off light and easy with everyone in a good mood seeing as we could walk away from our tent and bikes and explore nearby Hannover.  Let’s hear it for days that don’t require riding!  And get this – we were walking toward the bus stop at 8:30am.  That’s unheard of on days we ride!  Never mind that we hadn’t had breakfast, we weren’t going to be using our own energy to get us anywhere far. 

Earlier in the week, Dean and I had looked over TripAdvisor’s “Top 10 Things to do in Hannover with Kids” and talked it over with our resident kid experts.  It was clear that the Zoo was where we should head.  So with that in mind, we made our way to Bus Stop 300 and waited all of 5 minutes, on a Saturday morning, to catch our bus.  Love the European public transit systems!

One teeny problem with such an efficient transport, it left us no time to look for breakfast, so by the time we made our way to the Hauptbahnhof (main train/bus station) we were needing some breakfast.  Lucky for us, we saw the most amazing baked goods and loads of them.  We followed our noses to the Back-Factory and choose no less than 12 baked items; 2 croissants, an apple rollover, 1 jelly donut, a scone, 1 cream croissant, 1 chocolate croissant, a raisin roll, 2 pizza’s, a caprese sandwich and 1 spinach croissant, plus four hot drinks.  Lest you think we are piggies, we saved the 2 pizza’s for later.  Ahem. 

Having the proper energy reserves, we made another quick transfer by bus, and walked into the Erlebnis Zoo entrance.  To be honest, the outside of the zoo left a little to be desired, looking a bit dated and worn.  Once inside, however, we were pleasantly surprised to see that it was well taken care of.  In fact, it was laid out like a little theme park. There was a boat ride that would take you through some of the African Savannah highlights, such as the giraffes and zebras.  We saw many families take advantage of it – but when we found out the wait was 45 minutes, we opted to keep viewing on our own. It turned out to be a good decision as we were by the underwater Hippo exhibit in time to see them being fed.  It is no joke when a hippo opens its mouth!

Next, we got to pet loads of cute goats and made our way to the Yukon Territory.  As it was time for Dean and I to get a caffeinated beverage, we placated Dex and Kylie with ice cream.  After five minutes, they were off to see more of the park with a promise to come back in 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, Dean and I seized the opportunity to find campgrounds for the next few days to Hamburg.  After accomplishing this and still no kids, we started to think that maybe we should track them down.  Dean found them with front window seats for viewing the “Henry’s Underwater World” seal show already in progress.  We only got to catch the last of it with the kids.

After the Yukon, we found our way to the Indian Elephant exhibit where we all managed to touch the trunk of the largest elephant.  She would stroll along the front and fling her trunk toward all the visitors  We enjoyed watching a couple of smaller elephants too as they played and chased one another - clearly brother and sister tormenting each other, but never far apart.  

Just as we were thinking it was time to go, we came across the mother of all play grounds -- dozens of climbing structures, amazing slides, tunnels with secret entrances, and a little river running through it.  It was very cool, and the kids were in their element.  Next to it, conveniently, was a biergarten -- German’s definitely know how to keep the whole family happy. Once again, out came the phones as Dean and I worked on reservations for our upcoming two nights stay in Hamburg.  (Grumpus note: in Europe, we’ve come across several hotels that allow families to stay in one room, as long as there are no more than 3 people.  You are forced into booking two rooms if you have four family members.  Hmm.)

A full hour later we decided that it was time to make our way out of the zoo.  We had also read about Old Town Hanover, and I was hoping to explore some of it.  Switching from busses to the U (subway), we found Old Town and dinner, but not before walking past a church that had been bombed in WWII.  Although the signs were in German making it hard to get all the details, it was an odd feeling to be "inside" the roofless structure.  

We chose Vietnamese food for dinner and, once again, it was excellent.  I truly don’t think we’ve had a bad meal in Germany.  Every dish we’ve ordered has been super tasty.  We finished off the dinner with a visit to the Gelato store across the street and enjoyed our full day in Hanover.