Berlin Zoo

I’ve never been to a really big zoo before, at least to my recollection. I’ve been to Mogo several times, but I’m fairly sure that’s all. Since the guide in our room told us it was 11EUR per person for both the zoo and aquarium, and that Berlin’s zoo has the largest number of species in the world, we figured this could be a good day. It turned out to be 18EUR each, but we didn’t let that stop us.



The Zoo is designed in such a way that you actually feel very very close to the animals – like you could reach out and touch them. A lot of the enclosures were open aired, with no fences. A concrete moat separates you from the animals. We saw elephants, polar bears, giraffes necking, tigers, lions, the panda being fed, sea lions and hippos, among others.



It really is a fantastic layout, with lots of seating, and shade – a huge amount of care and thought has been put into the entire area, which covers a huge area just on the edge of the city. We spent almost 6 hours there, including the aquarium.
The aquarium also has a.... alligatorium.... you can walk across the walkway and look down at them... usually to notice a turtle sitting on the alligator’s back. True story.


After the zoo, we caught an S-bahn back to Potsdamer Platz (S- bahns are free when you have eurail passes) to find yet more Berlin Wall memorial. We started to notice about this point, that lots and lots of information is repeated in different locations. A cheap mcdonalds dinner sealed the day, and we went back to our hotel room, with two shitty single beds pushed together, and pillows that are softer than clouds (not in a good way.)