March 25, 2012
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The Salzburg Zoo
When the kids heard that there was a zoo in Salzburg and that is was also free with our card, they were so excited. I was less excited. Why would we want to go to a ZOO when we could see Austrian culture and stuff like that? But I stopped being a whiny pants and planned the zoo trip. (It turns out that if the cable car had not been closed, we would not have had time to go to the zoo. So in the minds of many people, not just the ones who don’t like heights, the closed cable car was a good thing.)
It turns out this zoo really IS a part of Salzburg culture. It is on the grounds of the Hellbrun Palace (which we shall talk about later). The zoo originally started out in the 1400′s as a hunting preserve. (Oh look, kids! It’s a dead animal bleeding to death!) Then someone started showing other animals just to look at. The zoo of today was opened in 1961.
We were not sure at which bus stop to get off, so we picked one and started walking. We stopped at a random hotel to ask directions, and then we walked some more. It was a pretty walk for sure!
Finally, we found the back gate, which led us to the front gate and admission! It was a zoo with standard animals, but no elephants.
One thing that surprised us was the lack of “Don’t be a total idiot and climb into the tiger cage” sort of signs. You could have hopped the fences pretty easily. (Well, not the tiger’s.) We went in one little display house that held monkeys. When we walked in, this little guy almost climbed up Libby’s arm!
There were no bars nor glass nor anything! He and his pals were only prevented from escaping by the heavy plastic curtain pieces that served as doorways. Wow.
Libby and I got to see this guy.
A keeper put meat out and then called him, “Here Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!” (It was in German, and I don’t really know what she said, but it sounded like that.) The tiger came over to the keeper (who was on the other side of the fence) and ate meat out of her hand! It was pretty wild.
We all enjoyed watching the rhinos. Two were in a face-off. We at first thought that it was a young male trying to assert his dominance of the herd over an older male.
Libby’s visit to the zoo was marred by her hooves hurting. The shoes which were comfy in three-hour stretches didn’t quite work for all-day treks.
The zoo was interesting in that most of it was on the side of a cliff. The big cats, goats, bear, and other deer lived on that side.
Other animals lived on the flatter side.
We stayed until closing time, got a bus back to town, picked up frozen pizzas, and put our feet up. It was a good day for all the animals!
