so viele tiere!

Even after some crazy lapses in communication, I was able to meet up with Claudia and Werner in Potsdam. Knowing they would be in the area, I messaged Michaela (their daughter) on Facebook just as they were coming to Potsdam. My phone didn't have a missed call from the night before! So annoying. Anyway, Werner had a business trip to Berlin and Claudia came too!

We walked around Park Sanssouci and Werner and Claudia took me into some new buildings that I hadn't seen from the inside before. If there's one thing I want to master before leaving Potsdam, it's Park Sanssouci.

Inside the Roman Bath buildings, there are architectural drawings for Charlottenhof palace and the landscape plans for the entire park - very interesting. I wonder how much upkeep the park requires. So much of it looks like its growing naturally, but everything is planned.

Then off to Berlin! We spent the late afternoon in the Zoologischer Garten (the zoo of former West Berlin and recently well-known for housing polar bear cub, Knut)

This little baby elephant was so cute. Apparently his big sister wakes him up often.

(for Lauren)

After the zoo, we went out to dinner near the hotel and then for drinks in the Sony Center, also nearby. It was really great to be with familiar faces and spend the day.

Only two days later did I find myself at the Tierpark (you guessed it: the zoo of former East Berlin). It is the largest landscape animal park in Europe, and I was no less than impressed. It might even beat Seattle as my favorite zoo.This is for sure the closest I've ever been to a rhino, and it came even closer! Their bodies are so interesting. Also, can you tell that I liked Claudia and Werner's coats? I went shopping the day in between the zoos and came back with a trench coat... coincidence? I think not. The Tierpark was so cool! We'd (we being 3 German girls and a girl from LA) walk through winding paths under lush green shade and, whaddyaknow, we're looking through a clearing at dozens of camels just across a deep river bed. More often than not, the animals had large plots of land and were kept in by barriers other than fences.

It seemed like every exhibit had babies. Well not really every exhibit, but at least 30%, which makes for a ton of baby animals over 2 zoo trips. As much as I loved the babies, it made me think about my little nephew across the world and his mom, who loves animals more than anyone I know.