Koln Zoo

Matt made it back from the states on Saturday. It felt like he had been gone a lifetime and it had only been one week. I am certainly dreading the 6 week TDY he has coming up. Anyway, back to the reason for the post. Oh, he bought me a new camera. :-)

The day was pretty and we are running out of summer time as a family with all Matt's travels. So, over the weekend we headed to the Koln Zoo. The weather was gorgeous and we even got a little warm! The zoo was nice and very similar to what we are used to. Some of the animals were a little different than what we are used to seeing, but for the most part it was the same. It was FULL of monkeys which the kids enjoyed, had a huge new indoor/outdoor elephant park, and a nice aquarium. There weren't flowers everywhere, which I expected but it was very clean and neat.

I really got a kick out of Landen. He had his tickle box turned on with the various animal "anatomy" if you know what I mean. I've never seen him be so interested in this, which in turn got mine and Matt's tickle box. He enjoyed informing us of which animals were male. I guess my baby is growing up.

After the zoo, we headed toward the gondolas for a quick ride across the Rhine River. I don't like these things and have a fear of heights the older I get. The idea of hanging high over a river and highway with only a wire above me doesn't exactly excite me these days. The last time I went up in the Arch in St. Louis, I vowed never to do that again. As we took off, my stomach was in knots but I relaxed more about the 1/2 way turning point and began to enjoy it. It was very smoggy, but we could see the breathtaking Dom cathedral from a different angle than we saw the prior time we went.

Just as the gondola was about to turn around for our return trip, Landen looked down and once again got another eye full. People this time. Yes, he says "those people are naked!!" Matt and I look down and sure enough, we are hovering over a spa. Europeans are very free and yes, there were naked people. Men and Women. Nice for the young ones to see, huh? Who puts a spa underneath a gondola?