Tierpark Hellabrun (Hellabrun Zoo)

The King of the Jungle x2--My kids asked interesting questions about
lion mating habit since there were no females. The zoo is good for so many things. 

Today we went to the zoo.  We've tried really hard to do things that are different, that we can't do at home, but I knew the kids would love it.  The weather was great, a bit cool thins morning but perfect for being outdoors and walking around.  I feel like another benefit of going when it's cooler is that the animals are more active because they aren't trying to survive the heat.  (It could be my imagination and trying to transfer my dislike of heat to the animals, though)

There were 4 giraffes.  They were cool, Ben especially loved it.
I couldn't tear him away.

I told the kids this morning we were going to the zoo there were a couple of cheers.  We hurried to get ready and were out the door by 9.  We rode a bus, the U-bahn, and then another bus, but it was just our luck that we arrived at each transit location just as the vehicle we wanted was pulling away so it took a bit longer than expected to get there.  Once in, we were off.  It is a large zoo but I think we saw everything.  We even made time to stop at two playgrounds.  We spent at least 5 1/2 hours there today.  We saw lots of different animals that we'd not seen before unfortunately we didn't always know what they were since most of the placards were only in German.

These pelicans were really fun to watch.  

This was a portion of the Maus Haus.
Too cute to watch the mice scurry around the little houses,

Coral reef with shark.  Jonathan was in heaven.

This rope bridge led us to the second playground of the day.

This baby seal was really cute.  It saw the crowd forming to watch the others
swim and I think he wanted to do a show, or maybe just food.
He got up on that rock and then the platform next to it and just did his thing. 

I felt like the enclosures were well kept and good sized.  The animals looked healthy too, though of course I know nothing about what would really be appropriate.  There weren't a lot of people there either so I could relax a bit as the kids ran and exclaimed to their hearts content.  We had a good time and I think they were a little worn out by the end.  They were even, pretty good while we did our daily shopping : )

The kids were a little turned off by the baboons pink bottoms, but we were all a little freaked out when they started screeching and pointing in our general direction, even more so when they started running away.  We're not sure what scared them but it was an interesting experience.

As you can see this is the Bat Cave.  I just love the German though,
a direct translation is Flying (fleder) Mouse (mouse) Grotto (grotte).

R.O.U.S.--not really sure what it really was

Playground #1 and lunch spot.

These statues were everywhere.
 Charlotte loves to climb on them and pose, so does everyone else.