I recently moved to Berlin temporarily and when my girl-friend came over we went to visit the Zoo. She loves animals and I love nature, and
Berlin Zoo exhudes this special serenity that is so hard to find. There's plenty to do and big patches of green, bamboo forests and the like, the offices and care taker school built in the style of a Chinese pagoda while others are reflecting African architecture, you can spend all day there. And right next door, actually on the same grounds, is the Berlin Aquarium, but you'll need to schedule an extra day for this if you want to do it all properly and see everything. I would also submit that the
Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town is both bigger and better with its massive Kelp forests and Shark tank, the Penguin area and Whale exhibit and the like. Not surprising given that Berlin isn't anywhere near the sea. Btw, the name is a bit misleading, as the two oceans actually meet a bit East of the Cape Peninsula.
Apparently San Francisco's
Aquarium of the Bay is also one of the best and one of only three in the world that house a living Kelp forest, and that will be my next destination when time and money allow.
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Me and Big Brova |
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But back to our visit to the Zoo. I'm quite aware that some are of the opinion animals belong into the Wild and not locked up behind bars so to speak, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but let's not get into that debate here. At the very least they seem
very well cared for.