Part I: The Seeds Germinate
Where to start?
One of the main seeds of this trip were sown in June 2017; whilst stood in Prague airport with Helly and our "usual" travelling companions for continental city visits (her parents, aunt and a family friend) the conversation turned inevitably onto the subject of where we could visit the following year. Claire - the aforementioned family friend - was rather taken with the idea of visiting Krakow in southeast Poland; somewhere which would certainly be interesting to visit on a cultural level but which would be somewhat troublesome when it came to visiting zoological collections, given the fact that it is quite distant from those Polish collections which would be my priority in such circumstances. Moreover, although quite close to both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, opening the door to visiting collections in these countries as daytrips from Poland would introduce the issue of having to juggle three different currencies - the Euro in Slovakia, the Koruna in the Czech Republic and the Złoty in Poland. As such, although I was nonetheless open to the idea of visiting Poland in 2018 I put another idea on the table - to visit western Germany, more precisely North Rhine-Westphalia, taking advantage of the fact that there are regular direct flights from Newcastle to Dusseldorf. This would allow me to not only visit various collections in the Ruhr and surrounding area, but also to indulge my deep interest in medieval history by visiting the city of Aachen - not only the seat of Charlemagne, first Holy Roman Emperor, but also the site of his burial within the historic cathedral built at his command.
Over the following few months, with much discussion and consideration of Krokow, Köln and Dresden as potential destinations, along with Amsterdam or a return to Berlin, the decision was made; we would visit Köln, flying into Dusseldorf and staying for a week. However, other seeds were germinating........
To put it quite frankly, on a personal level 2017 was quite
terrible as years go
between my paternal grandmother passing away in April 2017, our cat passing away in June 2017 - quite literally two days after our return from the Czech Republic - and Helly starting to find low-level stress and anxiety opening the door to depression once again, as the year drew to a close we were increasingly eager to see it come to an end. I started mulling over the idea of trying to make the most of 2018 and ensure we enjoyed ourselves as much as possible. These thoughts were solidified further by my maternal grandmother - who had been in poor health for some years - rapidly declining over the course of the autumn. Then, whilst visiting the Chestnut Centre in late November, I received a text from my brother letting me know that she was in her final hours; something which I must admit struck me as darkly ironic, given the fact I was visiting a zoological collection which itself was on its deathbed when I received the news. A few hours later came the inevitable phonecall.
A week or so after the funeral, I started giving serious thought to the idea of
really making the most of the coming year, and moreover considering the fact that - with the ease of travelling to the continent being a much-more unknown quantity in the future given the idiotic actions of my own country - it would also be worthwhile making the most of being able to travel with ease within the European Union. As it happened, we had already been vaguely planning to visit
*somewhere* for Helly's birthday in late January - perhaps Devon once again, or Scotland - but between everything going on with our lives and the ridiculous cost of travelling within the UK we hadn't gotten around to booking anything. On a whim, and partially provoked by the fact that we had always said our first solo trip to the continent should be to the Low Countries, I looked online to see how expensive flights to Amsterdam and accommodation once there would be. Within 24 hours, and with very little discussion between us needed, we had decided to go for it.
Soon after, we had booked flights to Amsterdam in early February - flights and accommodation both being slightly cheaper then, when compared with a week or two prior - and could start actively planning our itinerary for the trip.
Prior to this snap decision, we naturally had been planning our upcoming visit to Köln and the surrounding area - but given our burgeoning desire to make the most of the year, we had started to consider it a de-facto "Last Chance Saloon" tour given the fact that the collections within this area would hopefully allow us to see species such as Orinoco Dolphin, Douc Langur and Mountain Anoa. As such, by this point we had decided that although it would require a little travel and some early mornings, we would travel to Antwerp (for the Eastern Gorilla) and Arnhem (for the Ringtails, Ringed Seals and Anhinga) whilst staying in Köln, discarding one or two more local collections from our plans in the process. The initial plan, therefore, was to visit Krefeld, Duisburg, Köln, Arnhem, Antwerp, Wuppertal and Aachen. Our decision to visit the Low Countries, however, presented us with an opportunity - not only could we visit these two collections a little sooner and with rather less travel time and cost, allowing us to add more collections to the NRW trip, but by reversing our initial logic and including Duisburg and Krefeld in the Low Country trip we would have three "spare" days in North Rhine-Westphalia rather than two! Combined with the fact that (even including a daytrip to Germany) our trip to the Low Countries would allow us to pick up even MORE last chance species, we started to officially consider this our Last Chance Saloon Tour (In Two Parts)
Over the course of the following few weeks, and with the assistance of various Zoochatters both within the UK and on the Continent familiar with the Low Countries, we started to hash out which collections we would visit in February; the refinement of our plans for the Rhineland could wait for now. The inclusion of Artis and Diergaarde Blijdorp was obvious, and we had already decided on trips to Arnhem, Antwerp and the Ruhr, but where else? Collections such as Apenheul and Dolfinarium Harderwijk were ruled out on the grounds that neither would be open at the time of our visit - the latter reopening for the year only days after we would return to the UK - whilst collections such as Zie-Zoo, Gaiazoo and Overloon were dismissed due to issues of accessibility by public transport. Collections such as BestZoo and de Paay were dismissed with some level of regret on the grounds that, although containing treasures such as Spotted Skunk and Lesser Grison respectively and not difficult to reach by public transport, they were too small to merit visiting alone and tricky to visit alongside another collection. Ouwehands was included in the plans due to the presence of Spectral Tarsier and Spotted Cuscus; Amersfoort was included after much debate over whether it would be better to visit here, or Vogelpark Avifauna, on the basis that a chance at Tammar Wallaby and Feathertail Glider (two species which had long-eluded us) was worth the fact that we had been given to understand it was otherwise of little interest. Artisklas was included on the grounds that it would be a relatively easy hop from Artis, the prospect of finally seeing an American Mink, and the fact that I've always felt it is interesting to visit the small places which no one ever talks about. We didn't consider including Wildlands Emmen for the slightest moment
As such, we decided on the following itinerary:
05/02/2018 -
Arrival into Amsterdam
06/02/2018 -
Duisburg / Krefeld
07/02/2018 -
Ouwehands Dierenpark
08/02/2018 -
Burgers Zoo
09/02/2018 -
Diergaarde Blijdorp
10/02/2018 -
Antwerp Zoo
11/02/2018 -
Artis / Artisklas
12/02/2018 -
DierenPark Amersfoort
13/02/2018 -
Departure from Amsterdam
Of course, the downside to partially planning a trip around last-chance species is that...well.... sometimes your chances run out
as such we watched the news threads discussing the various collections planned with some level of anxiety. Every time someone posted in the Duisburg news thread, we wondered - as so many before us have - whether we were about to learn Baby had died. We felt similar pangs when checking the threads discussing Krefeld, Burgers, Ouwehands and Antwerp. Not unexpectedly, the other shoe
did eventually drop. Or rather, the tarsier dropped. This led us to some interesting questions..... did we really want to visit Ouwehands for merely a single Spotted Cuscus when otherwise visiting the collection didn't much interest us? If we decided to scrap Ouwehands, which collection would we replace it with? Given the fact we had planned to visit Ouwehands that early in the trip solely to allow the best possible chance of making it there in time (also the reason, incidentally, that Duisburg was the first collection on the itinerary), would it be worth shuffling the order in which we visited other collections? Initially, the logical choice for a substitute was Vogelpark Avifauna.... but then one of our correspondents in trip-planning,
@Mr. Zootycoon , suggested that we visit BestZoo and Zie-Zoo in a single day; unfeasible by public transport but very much feasible if - as he offered - one has a lift between the two collections. As it happened, we had already made plans to meet up with him at Burgers along with
@korhoen , so the prospect of not only seeing two more collections with him, but collections we had previously ruled out with a heavy heart, was an appealing one. We also made arrangements, over the course of the next month or so, to meet up with other Zoochatters whilst in the Low Countries - as I will relate in due time
So, as the day of our flight to Amsterdam approached, our itinerary was seemingly fixed:
05/02/2018 -
Arrival into Amsterdam
06/02/2018 -
Duisburg / Krefeld
07/02/2018 -
Burgers Zoo
08/02/2018 -
BestZoo / Zie-Zoo
09/02/2018 -
Diergaarde Blijdorp
10/02/2018 -
Antwerp Zoo
11/02/2018 -
Artis / Artisklas
12/02/2018 -
DierenPark Amersfoort
13/02/2018 -
Departure from Amsterdam
I say seemingly, because plans can and *did* change.... but more on that anon.
(Coming up: Arrival And First Impressions)
