briegull, I really enjoyed my trip around your website. Your Berlin zoo trip brought back great memories. I went to that zoo almost every other week, for 6 years, although I have no photos. So yours are cherished. The trip to Thailand was excellent. Anyone who wants to escape AD for a few minutes should visit this website by one of our members. www.briegull.com. Thanks!
you're welcome. It's meant to be an escape from reality! I just feel so fortunate that I was able to make those trips!
The Berlin zoo was great. I met a keeper and because I docent at the local zoo, he took me "backstage" in a small primate exhibit, on the q.t. The lions were very active. Why? I asked, because mostly in the US I see very lethargic lions (also in Africa). Because we only feed them every three days, he said. The male I saw was paying VERY close attention to a toddler walking by!
No, bluedaze, not one. He didn't like to travel. He was perfectly and honestly happy to have me do it, but he didn't want to. He went ONCE to Europe, before we met; that's it and it was by boat. We did drive across the country with 3 kids in 1971.. RI to CA. Maybe that's what done him in, as Eliza Doolittle says. But really, he hated travelling because his leg would hurt.
Kitty, there are marvelous birds in the Berlin zoo. Maybe yours...?
I loved Berlin. I met my friend Carla and she took me all over, and we stayed in a little hotel in the eastern side.. and (in 2003) it had (in 2004) internet in my room. It was luxurious. In 1993 I'd travelled around Eastern Europe not that long after The Wall, and in Dresden, I stayed in an incredibly depressing Workers' Hotel. Quite a contrast. (though I liked Dresden's attractions a lot!)
But Berlin - the Museum Island, the Pergamon Gates, even the really ratty people's palace, since torn down, which was housing the Chinese warrior statues when I was there. The Ka-du-We, which is a department store the likes of which we quite frankly don't have in the US. The Reichstag and the Sony Center.. Nefertiti, for heavens' sake!!
And we went to the Philharmonic. We had been walking ALL day. I was hot and dirty, to be honest. And Carla went up to the box office and told them she had a very distinguished visitor who would be there only that one night and did they have any cancellations? And they gave us beautiful seats, and I sat cringing down in mine, feeling very out of place among all the glamorous dresses and furs. And there was this fantastic performance of Cosi fan Tutte, concert performance with Cecelia Bartoli singing and Simon Rattle conducting. I was blown away!