One Last Weekend

By the last week of the trip, I had completely worn down the soles of my shoes and the soreness in my feet was getting worse. However, I had one more day of walking ahead of me—a visit to the Berlin Zoo. I didn’t want to spend the whole day on my feet, but I did want to go see the panda and the icebear exhibit where Knut used to live.

In one of the penguin exhibits, the barrier was low enough to reach over and the birds were swimming by close enough to touch. I stuck my arm in the water, and shortly afterward a penguin darted over and started gnawing on my fingers hard enough to break the skin. I suspect I am not the first idiot to try that. Incidentally, the English name for those penguins was translated as “Jackass Penguins,” and a quick bit of googling revealed that while they are commonly called African penguins or Black-Footed penguins, the other name is also used due to the donkey-like bray the birds make. I had assumed it was just a particularly unfortunate translation error.

The Berlin Zoo was a bit of a let-down. I assumed that since it is internationally famous, because of Knut and also because it is featured on Zooborns frequently, that it would be the prettiest zoo I’d ever seen in my life with expansive, natural-looking habitats and nary a square cage with a concrete floor in sight. I was wrong. It is obvious that many of the habitats were built decades ago before new ideas about designing exhibits with the animal’s comfort in mind became the norm.

However, several moments during the visit were very cool. The fossa, the squeaking pile of Asian small-clawed otters, and the mother-baby pair of sea lions that were sunbathing in tandem made my day.

That evening, we went to the Berlin Beer Mile.

The next day, we went to the Berlin Beer Mile.

Monday, we had a long train ride to Frankfurt. Our hotel was near the airport, but far from anything to do or anywhere to eat, so we ate our last dinner in Germany at a doner restaurant and fretted about the air traffic controllers’ strike.