Snowleopard's 2019 Road Trip: Netherlands, Belgium, France & Germany
- Thread starter snowleopard
- Start date
The pun is mightier than the sword
After initially demurring on the basis it is "just" a bird collection, SL later indicated he would indeed visit Walsrode - however given the fact he is now hinting his trip has extended to Berlin this might have been dropped again.
Imagine we'll learn soon enough.
Note that off topic posts about cetaceans in captivity and the future of zoos has been moved to a new thread - Cetaceans in captivity and the future of zoos
This thread is about @snowleopard 's trip and observations and comparisons arising from his reports.
This thread is about @snowleopard 's trip and observations and comparisons arising from his reports.
A quote from the planning thread....
Given that the bulk of the trip has been posted about, I thought I'd check how many of these actually *did* get a full-day visit
not counting the two yet to be written about, the answer turns out to have been one!
Something about plans, mice and men comes to mind......
Given that the bulk of the trip has been posted about, I thought I'd check how many of these actually *did* get a full-day visit
not counting the two yet to be written about, the answer turns out to have been one!Something about plans, mice and men comes to mind......
Yes, @Shorts I saw the underground cafeteria at Dolfinarium Harderwijk. Nice!
Yes, @TheGerenuk I'm still going to Walsrode. On Facebook, a lot of zoo nerds that I'm friends with have already seen that I was at Tierpark Hagenbeck and so I decided to let the cat out of the bag in regards to those small, obscure Berlin parks. Next up, in terms of reviews, will be Burgers' Zoo, Tierpark Hagenbeck, Berlin Zoo, Berlin Tierpark, Erlebnis Zoo Hannover and Walsrode as I enter the final week of this 33-day trip. What a great line-up of zoos! Will I be spending 9 hours walking around Walsrode, stroking a long beard like @TeaLovingDave ,aka Gandalf the Grey, and making snobbish remarks about how others don't spend entire days in zoos, including breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, writing down all the scientific names, testing all the lavatory facilities to see which is the most convenient, wearing a big backpack because a zoo visit should be like a Peruvian mountain trek, and then typing up reviews that take 18 months to complete? Uh...nope. @TeaLovingDave is the George R.R. Martin of ZooChat, publishing lengthy tomes and then chastising other zoo nerds for 'only' spending 7 hours at Artis, or almost 7 hours at Blijdorp, or not living inside Walsrode for a full month so that the smell of bird poop can seep into every article of clothing. I was just at Burgers' Zoo with @lintworm and @Mr. Zootycoon and from entrance to exit it was 6 full hours on the dot. Could I have spent all day there, counting all of the Green Imperial Pigeons in Burgers' Bush? Of course, but 6 hours was great for Burgers' Zoo and I loved the place...plus I had just seen 77 other zoos and I had a 4-hour drive ahead of me and then 5 hours after that of typing up zoo reviews until midnight because when I get back home I have a wife and 4 kids that are eager to see me. So, Gandalf the Grey, I love your comments on this forum and eventually we'll meet when I come over to the U.K. to tour Linton Zoo just so we can marvel at Bearded Dragons together, but I'm publicly telling you to stop with the comments in regards to how long I'm inside specific zoos. I've now met, at the very least, 35 ZooChatters over the past decade and those 35 people will all tell you that I go out of my way to see every single exhibit in a zoo. Just because I'm not lingering over every Corn Snake in a glass box doesn't mean that I'm not a conscientious visitor. Yesterday, while at Zoo Berlin, I saw families arriving at 3:30 in the afternoon...yikes!
The long paragraph above comes across as a rant, but in truth it's meant to be more amusing in tone than condescending...hopefully that comes across accurately. I have often jested with Gandalf the Grey, as he likes to see everyone spend at least 4 days in a single zoo so that by the end of the visit all of the keepers and animals can recognize them by sight.
I will definitely be visiting some fantastic zoos. If I come across any Alpacas or Maras then I will stop for less than 10 seconds to take a photo of the exhibit and the sign on the enclosure and then I'll move on. With 90 zoos in a month and 500 zoos all-time, I don't need to be pondering a South American 'faux-pampas' while my life ebbs away. I will 100% make it to Walsrode, but I'm not a bird guy and I'm simply fascinated by the aura surrounding that facility. I'm genuinely excited to see it. A comprehensive species list was just posted a few weeks ago and even though I've surely seen 90% of the species in my lifetime, and tons of them over and over again this month, I will keep my eye posted on some truly stunning rarities:
Weltvogelpark Walsrode - species list - 19-07-2019
Off to enjoy another world-class zoo!
Yes, @TheGerenuk I'm still going to Walsrode. On Facebook, a lot of zoo nerds that I'm friends with have already seen that I was at Tierpark Hagenbeck and so I decided to let the cat out of the bag in regards to those small, obscure Berlin parks. Next up, in terms of reviews, will be Burgers' Zoo, Tierpark Hagenbeck, Berlin Zoo, Berlin Tierpark, Erlebnis Zoo Hannover and Walsrode as I enter the final week of this 33-day trip. What a great line-up of zoos! Will I be spending 9 hours walking around Walsrode, stroking a long beard like @TeaLovingDave ,aka Gandalf the Grey, and making snobbish remarks about how others don't spend entire days in zoos, including breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, writing down all the scientific names, testing all the lavatory facilities to see which is the most convenient, wearing a big backpack because a zoo visit should be like a Peruvian mountain trek, and then typing up reviews that take 18 months to complete? Uh...nope. @TeaLovingDave is the George R.R. Martin of ZooChat, publishing lengthy tomes and then chastising other zoo nerds for 'only' spending 7 hours at Artis, or almost 7 hours at Blijdorp, or not living inside Walsrode for a full month so that the smell of bird poop can seep into every article of clothing.
I was just at Burgers' Zoo with @lintworm and @Mr. Zootycoon and from entrance to exit it was 6 full hours on the dot. Could I have spent all day there, counting all of the Green Imperial Pigeons in Burgers' Bush? Of course, but 6 hours was great for Burgers' Zoo and I loved the place...plus I had just seen 77 other zoos and I had a 4-hour drive ahead of me and then 5 hours after that of typing up zoo reviews until midnight because when I get back home I have a wife and 4 kids that are eager to see me. So, Gandalf the Grey, I love your comments on this forum and eventually we'll meet when I come over to the U.K. to tour Linton Zoo just so we can marvel at Bearded Dragons together, but I'm publicly telling you to stop with the comments in regards to how long I'm inside specific zoos. I've now met, at the very least, 35 ZooChatters over the past decade and those 35 people will all tell you that I go out of my way to see every single exhibit in a zoo. Just because I'm not lingering over every Corn Snake in a glass box doesn't mean that I'm not a conscientious visitor. Yesterday, while at Zoo Berlin, I saw families arriving at 3:30 in the afternoon...yikes! The long paragraph above comes across as a rant, but in truth it's meant to be more amusing in tone than condescending...hopefully that comes across accurately. I have often jested with Gandalf the Grey, as he likes to see everyone spend at least 4 days in a single zoo so that by the end of the visit all of the keepers and animals can recognize them by sight.
I will definitely be visiting some fantastic zoos. If I come across any Alpacas or Maras then I will stop for less than 10 seconds to take a photo of the exhibit and the sign on the enclosure and then I'll move on. With 90 zoos in a month and 500 zoos all-time, I don't need to be pondering a South American 'faux-pampas' while my life ebbs away. I will 100% make it to Walsrode, but I'm not a bird guy and I'm simply fascinated by the aura surrounding that facility. I'm genuinely excited to see it. A comprehensive species list was just posted a few weeks ago and even though I've surely seen 90% of the species in my lifetime, and tons of them over and over again this month, I will keep my eye posted on some truly stunning rarities:
Weltvogelpark Walsrode - species list - 19-07-2019
Off to enjoy another world-class zoo!
That is because they live together with the Sifaka
Except for species like the Squirrel monkeys that are too difficult to contain, many primates can go out in winter when they want, as the door is open. There is also a lot of extra enrichment in place in winter, including the non-natural stuff that Apenheul doesn't want the regular visitor to see like cloths and balls.
btw, the former Proboscis monkey enclosure now holds the 2 Northern talapoin.
And I guess we have to disagree that Apenheul cannot be the best zoo on ones zoo list, I don't see why that should be reserved to big monsters...
That would be a pretty remarkable zoo trip in itself, regardless of all the other weeks..!
I think you have slipped into talking about @sooty mangabey and not myself now
as he is possibly the only living person to aver that Antwerp is a multi-day zoo!By the by, for the record my above remark about the collections you said would be full-day jobs was meant to indicate amusement that the lure of adding even more collections to your schedule proved too strong, rather than actual belief that they should have taken longer
quite apart from anything else , four of those collections didn't take an entire day for me either, and were I not reliant on public transport I'd have quite possibly done other places with them! But fair enough - fewer jokes about how fast you can get collections done, in return for fewer jokes about the fact writing long-form prose comes less easily for me when compared to you?
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Walsrode always changes enough that there's still scope for a surprise or two, too
Indeed - my list of favourite/best zoos contains a few places which would never be considered "big monsters", such as Alpenzoo, HWP and Living Coasts!
I always spend at least two days in Antwerp Zoo whenever I'm in Belgium; it's certainly possible to see the collection in a single day but Antwerp is one of my very favourite zoos, so I always want to return for a second (or even a third) day.
If it were local to me, and a shade cheaper, I could definitely see myself repeatedly visiting over the course of a few days for a few hours at a time just as a pleasant way to spend some free time
If it were local to me, and a shade cheaper, I could definitely see myself repeatedly visiting over the course of a few days for a few hours at a time just as a pleasant way to spend some free time
It would be a lovely zoo to have within lunchtime stroll distance..!
By public transport or driving? That's a very big factor.
A friend (non-zoo person) was driving. It was a mini road trip and we had a day to get from Antwerp to The Hague for a concert there so I was “allowed” to go to Antwerp while he had a lie in and a leisurely brunch and then Blijdorp while he wandered around central Rotterdam. I had an early start and we were staying right next to the zoo.
I was going to say I hope you did Blijdorp second if you were driving as it'd be easier to park there in the middle of the day!
Oh, yes, re-read the original...I get it, sorry! Thought you were just being innacurrate...And thus a pun misses the mark
