A few months ago Alpro was doing a promotion where you could save up 5 points to get a “buy one at the door, get one free” ticket to Planckendael zoo (or you could go to the Antwerp Zoo or the Serpentarium but out of those three, Planckendael appealed the most).
As I tend to eat and drink a lot of Alpro products anyway, I figured there was no harm in collecting points for one ticket.
And as it was valid 'till quite late in September, I figure that we would either go or we won't.
But obviously we went, and this is what our day looked like :)
I'm sure this rhino really enjoyed a nice refreshing bath considering how warm it was that day.
Because the weather was really nice that day (August 9), and we were stopping by my parents anyway (who live pretty close to the zoo) we figured we might as well go.
Sadly we ended up staying at theirs too long and so we had to drive to the zoo (it's a 20 minute walk to and from and we still had to be at Bert's parents at 5pm), meaning an €8 parking fee. Which is frankly a ridiculous price for the privilege to park a damn car.
Frankly, I find that the €27,50 adult entry price (it's €25 for students, who the fuck has money for that?!) is a joke too, but at least we only had to spend cash on one ticket instead of two, so that was something.
Lovely weather also meant that most of the animals were out, which is awesome.
There are also a few new animals like tasmanian devils.
As well as a LEGO animals exhibit that was placed throughout the park. They had a leaflet of it, depicting all the animals and you could cross off the ones you found, I thought that was a nice touch.
I liked most of the LEGO statues, but I detested how they had set up the fox hunting the rabbits, it was just more “foxes are vermin that steal rabbits and chickens” propaganda in my opinion, because the rabbits were clearly cute little domestic rabbits.
Plus it was set up right next to the rabbit pen (which is FULL of domestic rabbits).
Seriously, Planckendael, NOT cool...
I took separate photos because I'm not playing along with that kind of anti-fox game.
Btw, before anyone says anything, there's been a lot of talk on an off in Belgium about scrapping the ban on fox hunting, because our minister responsible for these things, the wildly corrupt and incompetent Schauvliege, is a fox hater.
The zoos get funding from the government.
You do the math.
What was also not cool is that they no longer have a red fox :(.
And the fact that most people don't seem to have ANY idea of what parenting entails and just allowed their spawn to run utterly rampant.
But you know, anti-fox propaganda and rude people aside, it was really nice to be able to walk through the zoo and see the animals.
Contrary to Zoo Antwerpen, which is basically the main zoo of the same conglomerate (the other two being Aquatopia and Serpentarium), in Planckendael animal welfare still prioritises over visitor comfort.
So for the most part, the animals are now all appropriate housing.
Had the ticket only been valid for the zoo, I would have chucked the points, because no fucking way I'm setting foot in there again if I can help it.
But yeah, Planckendael is much better.
A bunch of the lorikeets were molting, hence the more or less bald one in the background.
The lemurs have a walk-in compound, so if you're lucky you can get some really close up shots.
Koalas sleep most of the day, but Bert and I have been mostly very lucky because nearly every time we visit, at least one of them is awake.
This strange looking beastie is a Tasmanian devil.
There were two of them and they got into an argument. They were just like cats having a fight!
We ended up having a small stop at the restaurant in the Asian section because Bert was pretty hungry and so he had something to eat and we both had a drink.
So I figure we supported the zoo at least slightly, as their prices are pretty atrocious.
I think that in summer, most people just bring a picnic, and who can blame them really.
They do have a discount for annual pass holders, which I think is a nice touch.
I love the LEGO koi fish, because the waters of Planckendael are full of big carps and koi fish.
A fed Bert is a happy Bert ^^.
Sadly, because we had little time, we didn't get to see everything.
In hindsight it was probably a better idea to have gone on another day so we could have seen everything, but at least we got to do 2/3rds of the zoo, and saw TONS of animals, so that was cool :).
More photos from this visit are here.
And more zoo photos in general are here.
----
Find me online:
twitter - instagram - website - old blog (it's to say, I double post, but my years and years of posting backlog is on there as I've had it since 2003)
No comments:
Post a Comment