Blijdorp (aka the Rotterdam Zoo)

In the past few weeks, we seem to have developed a new little family tradition of visiting Blijdorp, the Rotterdam Zoo, every Sunday morning. By car, Rotterdam is pretty convenient (only about 15 minutes down the road), and the zoo is quite nice. Near the entrance is a large oceanarium, which is separated into zones (North Sea, Caribbean, etc.). On rainy days, we pretty much stick to that, since it's all indoors and Ellie loves watching the fish.


On the sunny days, we walk throughout the zoo and see what we can see before the Little Monkey who lives with us gets tired. Blijdorp is a lovely zoo. It was designed all in one go and (more importantly) with active children in mind. There are lots of fun little passageways in and around exhibits. Taller kids can poke their heads up through a tunnel right in the middle of the groundhogs. Most creeks can be crossed via a bridge or by hopping across large stones for the more adventurous tikes.


Of course, the animals are a great bonus, and we feel so lucky to be in a place where Ellie can go see the animals that we show her in books. The elephants seem to top her list of favorites (she cries a bit when we leave them), and on this visit she was fascinated by the indoor butterfly garden. Jennifer always favors the big cats, and Markus just dreams of South Africa where the animals aren't caged at all. At least we can enjoy the beautiful spring sunshine together, and watching Ellie discover new things is always rewarding!