Antwerp Zoo

Today we all went to the Antwerp Zoo, including Jenee. We took a train to Antwerp, which is 30 or 40 minutes north of Brussels. The train station was reportedly beautiful, and it turned out to be as advertised. A lot of the station has the feeling of being outside, except it's actually under a glass ceiling many feet above. There are multiple levels of tracks, so if you enter the station from one of the lower tracks (as we did) you see this very large, open view of the beautiful station.

The zoo is right next door to the station. Entry is rather steep: 18.50€ ($24) adult, 13.50€ ($17.50) 3–12, free for < 3. I did not even try to exercise my French—in Flanders, speaking French is not generally appreciated, to put it mildly. We got a fair ways into the zoo before we saw our first animal, but then things got rolling: flamingos and other birds, lions, jaguars, panthers, tigers, camels, donkeys, a hippo, elephants, apes, monkeys, giraffes, and more. To me, the hippo and the elephants were among the more exciting animals, because we don't have them at the Vilas Zoo in Madison. The hippo was in a pool with only a small part of its back showing, and we couldn't even tell which end was which. Amelia insisted on watching the hippo longer, which was good because the hippo eventually raised its enormous head for a while.

In addition to having a reasonably impressive faunal collection, the zoo was also sort of a European garden, or series of gardens. There were topiaries, statues, garden paths. From the human perspective, I think this fusion of zoo and European garden was well done. From the animal perspective, I think it was mixed results. Some animals had clearly inadequate space (the lions being among these, but the cats are scheduled to get a much improved space in the forseeable future), but others seemed to be all right (the elephants were in this category, and when we saw them they were fraternizing in a very playful way with each other).

We had lunch in the principal food station inside the zoo, a burger place where we sampled mediocre hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, and fish sandwiches. A serving of a side of kethcup was an extra 0.70€ (90¢)! But honestly, all things considered, I only felt gouged at the gate, not at the restaurant. After lunch, we spent some time at a nice playground next to the restaurant (and still inside the zoo). Then we returned home, except for Jenee, who did a little more touring in Antwerp.