Zoologischer Garten...

Alright, back to Berliner Fotos. One Saturday we went to the Berliner Zoo!!!! It was the greatest day ever...simply because I LOVE going to the zoo. Before the zoo, some of us had eaten at a bier garten nearby...and I unknowingly ordered SPARGEL because I forgot was that WAS. It's asparagus. Actually, asparagus quich (ok, seriously...you have no idea how long it took me to figure out who to spell that...). BLECH! I ate it all, though. Didn't enjoy one bite...but I ate it. I didn't want to appear picky. But really...icky...

I was so excited to see one of these guys. It was so awesome. The only thing missing was the little monkey...but we'll get to that laters.

The front of the zoo...a lot of people in line...as usual for a zoo during the summer on a weekend...

Wow, didn't realize how far away that sign was. Well, is says, "Berliner Zoologischer Garten"...because that's where we were...

I'm pretty sure when appearing like this it means, "KEEP OUT" or something to that nature. Literally and with the help of my awesome online dictionary, another way this could be translated is, "Please Not Embarrassed." Oh wait. Wait to go, Alli...messing up adjective forms with verb forms. Ok, this really says, "Please Don't Tread", but "betreten" in adjective form means embarrassed or confused. Sticking that away for later. lol.

Mountain goats! Wook at da widdle baby mountain goat! How cute!

Aw, sleepy gazelle thingy. Francesco whistled at it and it lifted it's head up immediately. haha.

AND BABY GIRAFFES TOO! How cute!!!!

Even cuter...what could it be? A GHOST! OH MAN A BABY GHOST!

Oh wait, no, it's a baby orangutan...

Man, look at that primate creature...so still...in it's natural environs... I's jus' foolin', it's a person!

MONKEY!!!! With a really long tale...

MORE BABY MONKEYS! Look at 'em playing in the puddle! Aw...

...and chewin' on stuffs...

Oh no, he looks so lonely. Poor monkey. :(

MORE BABY MONKEY! Can you tell I like the monkeys best?

This one kept making faces at us. This was one of the prettier ones...

Aw, the gibbon looks so sad...it's all locked up... *tear*

Haha, I really liked this sign. It points to the LA Zoo...and the signs underneath read: Bird House/Exit; Bears; Animal Children Zoo - ahem, I mean, uh....petting zoo...yea....; PANDA (in case people couldn't tell, since it's written in German, you know); and Riverhorses....well, we just call them Hippopotamuses in English. And yes, according to my internet's spell check, it is NOT Hippopotami.

OMG, IT'S THE PANDA! DENISE! LOOK AT THE PANDA! OMG, QUICK! QUICK! GET A PICTURE! IT'S SO CUTE! LOOK AT IT EATING ITS BAMBOO!

OMG, NOW IT'S EATING APPLES AND CARROTS! Look how fat he looks. He's on a diet, that's why he's got the apples and carrots...

I'm not sure what exactly this animal is, but it was darned cute. I want one.

MEERKATS!

I DON'T KNOW, BUT I ALSO WANT ONE OF THESE!

I believe this is actually a red panda. It was looking at whatever animal was on the other side of the grate. tehe. Silly thing.

OMG IT'S SITTING UP ON IT'S BACK LEGS! HOW CUTE TAKE A PICTURE QUICK!

It's a baby...whatever it is...meerkat? Soooo cute!

It was also feeding time for the big cats. Yummy!

This one had a whole chicken...you can see the feathers all over the floor... (1...2...3...you're welcome for the visual of its death...)

This leopard was a bit testy...

His tail was twitching. Later he was pacing in the cage and roaring. That made me sad. Poor thing just wants to run around and be free...

LOOK AT THE TIGER CHOP AWAY AT THAT STEEAAK!

SEALS!!!!!

BABY HIPPOPOTAMUS! You know, I actually spelled that correctly on the first attempt. Go me...

Um, you can't really tell, but it really is a Hippo sticking it's ears and eyes out of the water...

OMG, THERE HE IS! IT'S KNUT! Actually, this isn't Knut (one of the famed baby polar bears, one in Berlin, one in Nuremberg). But Knut looks exactly like this. Only he was dirty. He wasn't kept with the other polar bears either...he was with the black bears and brown bears. He was really dirty, too, so Michele said that putting with a different race of bears made him self-conscious and he wanted to be someone else...

This is the famed Gedaechtniskirche. It was practically the only thing left standing in this part of Berlin after WWII, so they left it exactly as it was as a reminder of the atrocities of war and put up that large octagonal memorial.



Here's some video of the monkeys! Um...I don't know if you'll be able to make it out, but don't try. I think Michele's talking in the background about the sex lives of various animals. He watched way too much discovery channel when he was in France....

Alright...getting soooo clooose to the end of Berlin photos! Then after Berlin is Bamberg....and THEN I can post Israel...