Dresden Zoo a.k.a. Playscape Heaven

Friday afternoon I went to the zoo with some kids (not just random kids I picked up off the street, though that would have been fun too...).  It was awesome (even though it reminded me how much I miss kids and teaching art :( ).

The Dresden zoo is pretty small, which is nice because you can walk around the whole thing and not miss anything.  I think the most fantastic part of the zoo is all the playscapes.  There are at least 6 of them and they're all a little different, but are all designed to blend in with the natural zoo surroundings.

Here are some lions:

And here is a play area where you can be a lion:

Here's a playscape full of ropes for climbing:

And one some with houses:

And one with logs:

Here's one with a giant giraffe!

Another extremely kid-friendly aspect of the zoo was the petting area.  Usually I'm not a fan of petting zoos... I don't see the fun in stepping in goat droppings or getting your clothes chewed on or having to use that gross anti-bacterial gel stuff they put just outside the gate.

But today was an exception.  There were BABY GOATS!!!  They must have only been a few days old because they were still really small and wobbly and nursing from their mom.  One even had a piece of umbilical cord still attached (ew!)

I was so excited about the playgrounds and the goat babies, that I only took a few other pictures of animals.  Of course, its Germany... in the winter... and we were at the zoo at 3pm, so everything turned out too dark anyway :(  Its been getting dark at 4:30 here!  Ridiculous!!  (I like it!)