A day at the zoo
Jul. 21st, 2017 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beelikejThree weeks ago I went on an office outing to Wildlands zoo; it was a day with inspirational lectures and workshops with a bit of free time and food in between:) This zoo in Emmen moved to a new location just over a year ago and parts of it are still not done, but there is a really nice collection of animals and the set up is very promising. The zoo is divided into three continents: Nortica (freezing), Jungola (a jungle with a river) and Serenga (a desert). I made good use of the lunchbreak and walked the desert trail, which was pretty cool.
Before I get to the animals in this picspam, I'm sharing some photos of the journey, starting with parking my bike at the station, mostly because I want to show you our double decker bike racks:)
Now that you've seen those, let's get on the train to Emmen!
No, this is not Emmen; this is Nieuw Amsterdam, where we all had to get off the train because of problems with the rails. I was traveling with a whole group of people from my department and we were stuck in Nieuw Amsterdam for an hour, so we all missed the first lecture (that apparently included a dance and sing-a-long. So sad I missed it. Oh, did I sound sarcastic?
From the trainstation in Emmen we walked through town to get to the zoo.
It's a quaint little town. Wish I'd had more time to check it out (BUT WE WERE ALREADY LATE)
Still, I had to stop and take a picture of these groovy tiles and the funky art in front of Wildlands. Oooh, that's a pretty cool entrance.
Yep, pretty cool. I already like it here.
But first we had to sit down for the last part of the lecture. Fun fact: the slide that the director showed was part of a poster designed by yours truely. I had wondered why his secretary had wanted me to turn it into a powerpoint document, haha.
The music at the end of the opening ceremony didn't require audience participation, but the closing ceremony did; I didn't take pictures of that and let's not mention it again. Time for workshops!
The conference space in the zoo was gorgeous and I loved the artworks in the hallways a lot.
I had picked two workshops that turned out to be pretty fascinating; I got to play around making a digital map and I learned about ethical hacking, heheheh.
Lunch was not too shabby; I also had a second kroket, nom.
After that, we had some time to go into the actual zoo before the afternoon workshops. My co-worker H. and I decided to go into the desert.
I like the set up of an African deserttown, in the middle there was a petting zoo with goats.
I got a kick out of the decorations (I love skulls, okay)
First animals we encountered are prairydogs, they roam freely, so you have to mind your fingers. Adorbs though.
The Savanna with deers and giraffes and wildebeasts (I think)
The group of lions was lazing about hidden from view, we could only see their tails until a loud lady disturbed one of the lionesses just enough to raise her head.
I don't know the name of this animal, but look at my zoom!
Zebras!
Yes, the toilets. Just because.
A meerkat on a rock and an unidentified bird in the grass:)
We know enter babboon territory!
Got some really good close ups.
The rhinos were harder to photograph, they seemed very shy.
They put an old traincarriage in the desert, from which you could get really close to the camels.
Those were the last animals on our walk; our lunch break was over and we had a workshop about GPS. We did a fun experiment to test the accuracy of our phones location system. Some people ended up in the elephant's pond:)
Only virtually of course; you don't mess with the elephants;)
The otter couldn't be bothered to pose for a picture:(
My final workshop was a guided tour with one of the animal carers. She took us into the desert again, but luckily she had a lot of interesting information about animals I saw before and we took a sidetrack so I saw some animals I had missed on my own walk too:)
While the zookeeper was talking, I had time to take cute photos of the prairydogs, aaahw, baby fluffballs!
I had been to the hippo pool with H., but they were hiding for lunch. This time around they were splashing around and really enjoying their swim \o/
Brown wallabies.
In the distance you can see that old train I mentioned; I really like how they put that out there in the desert.
The African spurred tortoise was busy when we came by, but it was a quicky and he was in the mood for food right after *grins* (We learned why the shell of a female turtoise is flattened;)
After that final workshop, we had one more lecture and then it was time for a barbecue in the jungle! No we didn't eat the monkeys.
When I left after dinner, I got to roam through the zoo on my own for a bit and I felt really good about the day, so I took a happy picture:)
On my walk to the station I discovered another fascinating tile in Emmen next to the Pancratius church. (I now had time to take a better picture than earlier this morning:)
My co-worker P. caught up with me and joined me on the train. No delays on the way back, yay! I was exhausted from all the activities, but it was a good kind of tired. The day was much more fun than I expected.
I'm very curious what the zoo will look like in a couple of years. I might go back to check:) But first I'm planning a trip to fairytale amusementpark The Efteling; going there next week with my darling nephew. So there will be another picspam of that, you have been warned!
Before that there will be an artpost for the SMPC. If you missed my previous artpost, now's the time to catch up: Vampire!Jensen and Biker!Jared for the SPN_J2_BigBang!
J.
Before I get to the animals in this picspam, I'm sharing some photos of the journey, starting with parking my bike at the station, mostly because I want to show you our double decker bike racks:)
Now that you've seen those, let's get on the train to Emmen!
No, this is not Emmen; this is Nieuw Amsterdam, where we all had to get off the train because of problems with the rails. I was traveling with a whole group of people from my department and we were stuck in Nieuw Amsterdam for an hour, so we all missed the first lecture (that apparently included a dance and sing-a-long. So sad I missed it. Oh, did I sound sarcastic?
From the trainstation in Emmen we walked through town to get to the zoo.
It's a quaint little town. Wish I'd had more time to check it out (BUT WE WERE ALREADY LATE)
Still, I had to stop and take a picture of these groovy tiles and the funky art in front of Wildlands. Oooh, that's a pretty cool entrance.
Yep, pretty cool. I already like it here.
But first we had to sit down for the last part of the lecture. Fun fact: the slide that the director showed was part of a poster designed by yours truely. I had wondered why his secretary had wanted me to turn it into a powerpoint document, haha.
The music at the end of the opening ceremony didn't require audience participation, but the closing ceremony did; I didn't take pictures of that and let's not mention it again. Time for workshops!
The conference space in the zoo was gorgeous and I loved the artworks in the hallways a lot.
I had picked two workshops that turned out to be pretty fascinating; I got to play around making a digital map and I learned about ethical hacking, heheheh.
Lunch was not too shabby; I also had a second kroket, nom.
After that, we had some time to go into the actual zoo before the afternoon workshops. My co-worker H. and I decided to go into the desert.
I like the set up of an African deserttown, in the middle there was a petting zoo with goats.
I got a kick out of the decorations (I love skulls, okay)
First animals we encountered are prairydogs, they roam freely, so you have to mind your fingers. Adorbs though.
The Savanna with deers and giraffes and wildebeasts (I think)
The group of lions was lazing about hidden from view, we could only see their tails until a loud lady disturbed one of the lionesses just enough to raise her head.
I don't know the name of this animal, but look at my zoom!
Zebras!
Yes, the toilets. Just because.
A meerkat on a rock and an unidentified bird in the grass:)
We know enter babboon territory!
Got some really good close ups.
The rhinos were harder to photograph, they seemed very shy.
They put an old traincarriage in the desert, from which you could get really close to the camels.
Those were the last animals on our walk; our lunch break was over and we had a workshop about GPS. We did a fun experiment to test the accuracy of our phones location system. Some people ended up in the elephant's pond:)
Only virtually of course; you don't mess with the elephants;)
The otter couldn't be bothered to pose for a picture:(
My final workshop was a guided tour with one of the animal carers. She took us into the desert again, but luckily she had a lot of interesting information about animals I saw before and we took a sidetrack so I saw some animals I had missed on my own walk too:)
While the zookeeper was talking, I had time to take cute photos of the prairydogs, aaahw, baby fluffballs!
I had been to the hippo pool with H., but they were hiding for lunch. This time around they were splashing around and really enjoying their swim \o/
Brown wallabies.
In the distance you can see that old train I mentioned; I really like how they put that out there in the desert.
The African spurred tortoise was busy when we came by, but it was a quicky and he was in the mood for food right after *grins* (We learned why the shell of a female turtoise is flattened;)
After that final workshop, we had one more lecture and then it was time for a barbecue in the jungle! No we didn't eat the monkeys.
When I left after dinner, I got to roam through the zoo on my own for a bit and I felt really good about the day, so I took a happy picture:)
On my walk to the station I discovered another fascinating tile in Emmen next to the Pancratius church. (I now had time to take a better picture than earlier this morning:)
My co-worker P. caught up with me and joined me on the train. No delays on the way back, yay! I was exhausted from all the activities, but it was a good kind of tired. The day was much more fun than I expected.
I'm very curious what the zoo will look like in a couple of years. I might go back to check:) But first I'm planning a trip to fairytale amusementpark The Efteling; going there next week with my darling nephew. So there will be another picspam of that, you have been warned!
Before that there will be an artpost for the SMPC. If you missed my previous artpost, now's the time to catch up: Vampire!Jensen and Biker!Jared for the SPN_J2_BigBang!
J.