I can’t tell you how much being this close to a tiger at the zoo, even a stuffed one one behind glass …
reminded me of this trip a year ago.
It was an amazing experience, and I’m incredibly fortunate! I’ll never forget the feel and smell of taking a live tiger for its morning walkies! *grins*
Can you believe that was a year ago?!?
Natura Artis Magistra – the Artis Royal Zoo, located in Amsterdam. That was where we decided to spend the last Sunday in August. In the intermittent rain.
I had wanted to go to Artis almost since we first arrived in Amsterdam. Having lived nearby and at one point taking the cats to the Vet opposite, it had been tormenting me ever since.
When we woke up on Sunday and there was yet more rain forecast, I looked at Himself and declared that I’d be willing to dress for the weather just to get there finally! Thank goodness that he is as open to adventure as I am! Off we went with umbrella and raincoat stowed safely in the backpack.
It didn’t take long for the first of several downpours. This one happened as we were nearby the Reptile House, and in we went.
We were reminded that we will need to look up the laws on snake ownership in the Nederlands for our next pet adoption.
Another happened as we were encountering the Lemurs in Lemur Land. You can actually get close and interact with them! Although, at one point all anyone wanted was to be under the umbrella, out of the rain! We all crammed in there together.
Zebras are not wet weather animals. They told me.
With another downpour we were at the Aquarium which is housed within the same park. How cool is that?!? This wee froggy stole my heart! He was about the size of the nail on my little finger.
I guess it makes complete sense that if you have a big cat enclosure, then you’d have a resident taxidermist as well. I wouldn’t want to say good bye either.
I swear these sea urchins wanted to try out to be soot sprites from Studio Ghibli.
The Koi pond will always hold a special attraction for me.
I saw my first ever racoon! And Oh My Goodness! Can you stand the cuteness?!?
My first ever sloth! I like sloths. Always have. Don’t know why.
There seemed to be baby animals all over the zoo. Baby gorillas, baby sharks, a baby giraffe, this baby elephant …
But of course, the best was saved ‘til last. As we were being kicked out of the premises as they had closed a half hour before …
the baby lion.
You can bet you britches that we’ll be going back to see all of the park we missed (and we were there for five hours), very shortly!
Hope you had a good weekend one and all!
Otherwise titled: How to have an Adventure.
I once had a Little Book of Chaos where it advised that you should rip random odd pages out of your street directory in order to make life more interesting.
We may have heeded this advice a little too closely over the weekend.
I’d seen a poster for a medieval fair.
Being us we thought this looked AWESOME! And being in the nearby woods area, we decided to head on over after waking up on Sunday (during the heatwave).
Not being entirely sure where it was being held, we just walked and figured we’d come across it eventually. How could you miss it, we thought?
It seemed like an awful lot of our local community was out and about in the woods, walking in the shade in an attempt to escape the heat. Or swimming in the murky lake.
The light dappled the path through the green canopy, and when we got near the camping grounds, we found a few of these structures which appear to have been built by the bored kids over Summer.
There were some beautiful flowers all blooming in abundance in the sun and heat.
I have decided that I love thistles! They’re so pretty!
It was wonderful seeing new life sprouting from a felled tree.
And given all the canals, there is a predominance of water birds all over!
Have you noticed yet, that there are no pictures of the fair? Yeah. We discovered the hard way that the local woods are massive. We spent several hours walking in the heat, and only traversed the bottom third of the woods. It dawned on me then that I had the web address for the fair, and given that we live in the future with the internet on our phones …
We never made it to the fair. It was up the other end of the woods. Several kilometers away.
Oh well. Next year?
As has been evidenced in a previous post, where we live now is rather green, and after staring at google maps the other day, I decided that there was a section I really wanted to explore with my camera. Thankfully, Himself is amenable to my whims, and off we set to explore the local woods! Having already spotted my first wild hedgehog just up the street from where we’re living, I thought I’d up my chances of finding another in the actual woods!
Alas, it was not to be on this occasion. But there was still lots to see!
I love all the flora which is so different from what I’m used to.
Though we were in the woods, it doesn’t stop there being streams and canals all over! This picturesque little bridge was the subject of quite a few photos!
The bumble bees were out in force and hovering over the thistles and other pink flowers mostly. I still find the sight of actual bumble bees a thrill!
Not only is there canals everywhere, but it had been raining. So everything was a little damp. But the water level never changes. This would be the difference between canals and creeks.
Something that I had been told all my life but had never seen was that if lost in the woods, moss will always grow on the North side of trees. Well, have some ivy doing just that!
I have mentioned before on twitter that I love all the natural long grasses that line all the canals and major roads. This is the perfect example of the vibrant splashes of red poppy that punctuate these grasses.
Another bumble bee all laden down with pollen. (They’re so cute and fluffy!!!)
And this Ladies and Gentlemen of the audience, is in my opinion, the cutest house in the village!
Oh look! Another bike shop. I think I’ve spotted a theme …
Another cold and blustery beginning had us contemplating our options over breakfast. Not hard to do when you consider where we were and just how many options we had at our doorstep!
So we wandered, but with purpose! Through the Cimetière de Montmartre …
… around all the little alleys and cobbled streets which I love so much. It took me a while to realised one of the things I loved about them was the fact that they were on a slope! (Holland really is that flat)
This building was particularly spectacular!
Then it was up the Montmarte Funiculaire …
… and on to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur! Yes I was at a Church, on a Sunday, and the ground did not swallow me down into the fiery pits of Hell! Though, I didn’t tempt fate by going inside!
The Gargoyles looked just as menacing as they needed too. (Can I take one home with me?)
For those of you that are familiar with it, Montmartre is also where they filmed the movie Amelie. A scene was filmed up here! I have seen the telescope, I have walked the steps, I have seen the human statues! Check out this view of Paris!
Though I only went down the steps, not up them …
… both Himself and I did BOTH ride the two storey carousel! (My horse was the fastest! Inside track will do that for you *winks*)
To sum up, it was a wonderful weekend! It was harder than I would have thought though to switch from Dutch pleasantries to French ones! It has me completely determined though to learn more languages! I think it is the height of rudeness for me to rely on the fact that so far everyone in Continental Europe speaks English. After all, it’s usually their second or third language! Dutch first though! And thank goodness that Himself speaks French!
ghoti industries 