In a wonderful zoo, this building is now thoroughly depressing. There was a time when it was one of the greatest zoo buildings in Europe. Now it is just a mess.
In a wonderful zoo, this building is now thoroughly depressing. There was a time when it was one of the greatest zoo buildings in Europe. Now it is just a mess.
This central area was once host to the zoo's reptile collection (and possibly its fish as well - I'm not sure). There are now just a very few displays on the periphery. To the left were various aviaries, some of which were walk-throughs. These are still there, but looking pretty shabby. To the right was the ape accommodation (now just the gorillas - which is for the best, probably), as well as giraffes, elephants and probably others too. This bit has recently been refurbished, for rhinos and pygmy hippos, although I did think it was looking pretty bland.
Behind the position from which this picture was taken is the zoo's cafe (not the best, but not the worst), a funny little shop with almost no stock at all, and some of the most malodorous toilets in the Netherlands.
It's a playground now. the toilets are still horrible, some bird cages and marmosets are still in the aviary-greenhouse, but more mice than wanted inhabitants,..i was really disappointed to see "the legend" that way looking. I really like reptiles and amphibians, and the collections and succeeded breeding results were absolutely stunning there. But the house also aged, i don't want to know what it costs to heat it up. Either or, the magnifiicent glory days of this amazing zoo-building are...over
The cost to keep it heated with all the enclosures was enormous and due to huge budget cuts (because municipal subsidies were minimized), they closed it down as a reptile house, just to save budget...
