Wildgehedge & Bocce Ball

This Saturday the weather was supposed to be rainy... but we woke up to a cloudless day, so we decided to take advantage of it and do some outside activities.  Friday night I learned about a wild animal reserve called Wildgehedge close by in Moritzburg.  It sounded cool, so we thought we'd check it out.

Judging by the description I'd heard, I was expecting a forest where you walked around and observed wildlife hanging out in their natural environment, doing wild animal things, and possibly running up and attacking you.  It turned out to be more like a zoo.  The animals were totally unable to attack humans (probably a good thing), though we did see a few signs warning that if you stuck your hands into the enclosures, they could be bitten off.

It was a very cool wildlife experience.  There were walking trails through lots of enclosures featuring all sorts of native Saxon wildlife.  We were able to get pretty up close and personal with these deer (even though we didn't bring food for them to eat)

As we walked along past smaller animals like bunnies, guinea pigs and crows (not too exciting), we were becoming more and more anxious to see the new WOLF ENCLOSURE.  Wolves are awesome animals.  I think I like them so much because they're a lot like dogs, which are also awesome animals, but wild... and they howl.

The signs promised a new and exciting wolf enclosure if we just followed the path...

Well, the wolf enclosure was pretty awesome.  It housed 6 or 7 wolves (that we could see), but it was a little too enclosed for my liking.  I suppose if it was fenced in like the deer enclosure they'd have to put warning signs like "don't get to close or the wolves might jump over and gnaw you to death," which might not be appealing for families with small children.

Our favorite animals at the Wildgehedge were the owls (called Uhu- which is awesome for my animal alphabet book!)...

And the wild boars.
The wild boars were separated by size (and I'm assuming age), and the babies were SOOO cute.  They were making all the adorable oinking noises and if you stuck your hand near them they'd snort it and leave a mud mark on you (or according to the sign, might bite it off).

It was a blast.  Definitely on the list of fun things to do in Dresden.

When we got home, the sky was looking a bit ominous...

but we decided to walk up to Alaunpark to play some Bocce Ball.  For those of you who don't know how to play bocce ball, its an awesome, lazy, lawn game.  Here are the rules, in case you decide to take it up.
While we were there we got some softeis and I snapped this awesome photo of the bare trees:

We had a party to go to that evening and Bob was feeling in the "animal" spirit from the day's adventures, so we thought we'd make him up as one:

Also, there were going to be kids at the party and this was a good way to get them excited about having their faces painting.

Note:  I think I could have a future in professional face painting.  Its kind of fun, and its instantly gratifying when the face-paint-ee looks in the mirror and is happy with their new face.  The downside, faces look a lot less cool after a hot, sweaty party.