Due to some plane troubles in France, we ended up traveling through Berlin so Lesley could make a meeting. During our visit we managed to get some free time to visit the Berlin Zoo with Marlis Hazleton.
Zoo Berlin is the oldest zoo in Germany with the world's largest number of species.
One of Zoo Berlin’s characteristic features is its juxtaposition of historical and modern animal houses, relating during a single visit to the zoo the whole history of over one and a half centuries of animal keeping. Even buying the admission ticket transports you back to the nineteenth century.
The entrance to the zoo on Budapester Strasse is the reconstructed Elephant Gate of 1899 that was completely destroyed in the last war and resurrected in all its original detail in 1984. Two recumbent elephants of Elbe sandstone bear a sweeping roof ornamented with elaborate carvings and East Asian paintings. As equally inviting as a hundred years previously, the Gate entices the guest into a zoo world of exotic fauna. It is one of the most photographed sights in Berlin.
