Tuesday we headed over to Berlin Zoo, when Andrew and I went to Edinburgh in the summer we visited the zoo there and I was really sad to find the polar bear had died. After doing some research I found Berlin Zoo has three polar bears (but their giant panda sadly died last summer) I know Zoos aren't everyone's cup of tea but for me, as long as the animals have a good amount of space and seem happy and looked after, I think it's a great way to see a range of different species in one place that you may not be able to anywhere else.(this is another picture heavy post, you've been warned)
There were so many animals to see and I didn't want to include photos of all of them or you'd be looking at this until new year (hah, well maybe) so I've chosen some of my favourites. We saw the polar bears being fed, look at how fluffy he is! There were two more and one had such big fluffy paws, I'm convinced it must have been the youngest and still had baby fur. The baby elephant was so cute and if you didn't already know, I love penguins so seeing those guys swimming around was great.Berlin Zoo was different to Edinburgh, apart from being absolutely freezing (it is December and I really should have worn two pairs of socks that day at the very least) it felt like you were a lot closer to the animals. The lions for example, weren't in a netted enclosure, instead there was a big trench around where they were (and obviously they had their indoor part, where that photo above was taken) but without the nets you get to see them better and take clearer photos. It's still safe though, don't let me make you think otherwise!
The penguins were in their own little area though, but they had a huge amount of water and the front of their enclosure was all glass so you could see them swimming underwater, similar to the hippos and I tried to get a good photo of them swimming past but I just couldn't time it right. There is however, a little bit of footage of them swimming past in my Berlin vlog (part 2) for Lives Online that'll be up here very soon.
After we finished looking around the zoo and the aquarium too (we got combi tickets to go into both for €15 which was really good value) we headed to a market for some crepes. I had been hoping to find a building I was really interested in, but it was already pretty dark and there was no way we'd get there in time. 
I really was blown away by all the Christmas decorations, Berlin have some amazing ones and if you've been this year, do let me know what you think! So many big installations like the snowmen below and lots along the streets too. It felt very festive.
After returning to our hotel for a little break from the cold, we headed back out to see the Brandenburg Gate again. It really is such an amazing monument to see and surprisingly, wasn't too busy (although I think this might have been at about 9:30pm) We took some photos and had a little walk around before heading back to our room to plan our final day and get some sleep.
You can read part 1 of my trip to Berlin here. L
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