Knies Kinderzoo

Although (or, perhaps, because) we let the kids stay up late last night, Joey was awake bright and early this morning.  I woke up to him quietly tickling me.  When it was clear Mommy wasn't getting up, he crawled into bed and dozed until Alex woke up decided to join the party.

When Ella and Alex have something they really don't want to share, they call it their "special" thing: "Special turtle," "Special kitty," "Special game." I've never heard Joey use that phrase until this morning, when Alex shoved him over to make room for himself in the slumber party.  "No!" protested Joey, "That's my special sleep!"

I wanted my special sleep, too, but it was just as well we got up.  I had a big day planned for us all, and chores to get done before we could enjoy ourselves. As it was, it was just a little after 11:00 that we got on the train to Rapperswil to visit the Knies Kinderzoo.

Swiss zoos love their guinea pigs

This zoo only opened for the season last weekend, so I'd hoped (correctly) that it wouldn't be crowded today.  Associated with the Swiss National Knies Circus, the zoo appeared to be home to many retired circus performers.  To my eye, the animals seemed to be older, and the menagerie was mostly circus-popular: elephants, camels, seals, ponies, monkeys.  Although there was also a very large flamingo colony, as well as some parrots and, once again, guinea pigs.

Joey is my real animal lover and will watch them until the end of the day; Ella and Alex dashed past the enclosures, straight for the playgrounds. And, as I've come to expect from Switzerland, those playgrounds were unusual and absolutely wonderful.















Closest to the entrance was a large pirate ship, the galley of which doubles as a reception hall for children's birthday parties.  Joey spent quite a lot of time there, because, just off the port bow, you could make out the flamingos.

Ella and Alex were looking to climb some more rigging, however, so they dashed away to a climbing area that puts Kirkland's Grass Lawn Park to shame.

It wasn't long before I pulled them off the ropes, happy though they were, because there were camels that needed to be fed, and I knew one two-year-old in particular who would be very happy to help with that.  So we dashed across the park and found the keeper with her bucket of carrots.  She seemed to have given up on having any kids help feed today (the park really was quiet) until we showed up, so my three got to feed the entire lot to the camels.

The boys were in absolute hysterics, while Ella clearly fancied herself a camel-charmer and started singing softly to them, petting them as she fed them.  When she ran out of food, she went up to give one of them some more love, telling me "I like this one best."  But, when "that one" discovered Ella had no more food, it unceremoniously spit at my daughter. "Well!" quipped my Ella, gamely, "But I don't think it likes me!" And thus ended Ella's very brief love affair with camels.

And so Ella and Alex ran to the the closest playground, apparently themed "mouths that you can climb in"

Alex inside a blue whale

And Alex inside a dinosaur

But Joey wasn't so easily distracted.  He didn't want to leave his camels, and he had much to say about them. They're big, very big, funny, silly, big, nice nice camels.  Despite the spitting.

From the camels we slowly drifted back to our first playground, of which the kids hadn't had their fill.  There was a whole second half to it, including some kid-powered spray toys that shot water when you jumped on them or rocked on them and a wooden climbing structure that kept my three busy for just about two hours.

The wooden structure was hung with pulleys attached to tire slices.  The kids were able to scoop wood chips into the tires, pull them up, and then dump them through various tubes and chutes on the climber.  There was also a zip line with a half-tire attached, for wood chip delivery to a second climbing structure. So the kids played wood chip factory in the sunshine while I read my book.  And that was quite all right with me.

Joey was pressed into service as well and is now quite handy with a pulley.

Alex, briskly unloading a delivery of chips

Their playtime was interrupted halfway by a visit to the seal show, which was quite similar to the Sea World shows I remember seeing when I was young.  Joey and Alex clapped happily along to the music (mainly Michael Jackson) nearly the entire show, and Ella was called up to play catch with a seal named Elvis.

Toward the end of our visit, the kids started getting very hungry, and I was running out of granola bars, so we stopped in at the restaurant, planning to get some hot dogs.  But the bags of popcorn they were selling at the register looked much more appetizing (and less dinner-destroying) than the hot dogs, so we bought four of those and started snacking.  I was a little surprised when I realized the popcorn was slightly stale, unsalted, and unbuttered, but those last two the kids are used to, so I shrugged and let the kids keep eating.  Only when I noticed one of the zoo keepers giving the kids an amused look as they ate did I start to wonder what the "Tierfutter" label on the popcorn bags might mean.

The answer? Pet food.

Some stealthy watching of the other guests revealed that the popcorn was intended for the ponies.  "But Momma," protested Alex, when I informed him of this twist, "I don't want to feed the ponies! I want to feed me!" So he curled up in Joey's stroller and finished off his bag, but Joey and Ella were more than happy to share.

Ella found a new target for her affections.

Joey gleefully fed his popcorn to the ponies kernel by tiny kernel.

In addition to feeding the animals, the zoo also offered pony rides, a horse-drawn cart, and even camel rides.  But we passed all of these up: we had our eye on something bigger.

Two francs will buy you three-minute elephant ride. Joey was chortling the whole time: "Elephant! Elephant!" Her was named Patma, and the handler, who clearly adored her, told us that she was a grand old lady of 48. And because the elephant keeper was amused by the kids, he nipped us each a carrot to feed her at the end of the ride. Despite all of his practice today, Joey was a little too awed by Patma and threw his offering at her feet. But Ella and Alex were amazed and thrilled.

We didn't leave the zoo until closing, and less than 100 meters from the exit, our tiniest zoo keeper finally regained his special sleep.

I had to wake him up again for dinner and bath time, but, happily, his late nap didn't mess with his bedtime schedule.  The last thing he said to me tonight was "More more animals? Please? Monkey? Camels? Elephants?"

In case you want more, I put together another little 90-second video of the kids playing today, including Ella's Elvis encounter.