Affenburg, or Monkey Mountain

I can't quite remember how I found out about the funny little place that they call Affenberg, or Monkey Mountain. But I do remember my enthusiasm when I did.

They let you hand-feed free-roaming monkeys there?

Sold!

More than anything, this stop was the reason we rented a car for this trip: there's just no graceful way to reach Affenberg Salem by public transportation.  And we had a hard enough time getting there with our car, even, navigating our way around Bodensee to get to this tucked-away little wildlife preserve. Of course, I'll grant you that a good deal of our trouble came from my own poor navigation. I never claimed to be good with maps.But we made it to Monkey Mountain, and just around lunch.  As we pulled in to the parking lot and told Joey that we were at the place where we'd feed the monkeys, he squawked in protest. "No! I want to feed me!"


And so we fed ourselves at the park restaurant, and then sent the kids off to burn off their excess energy on the park's adventure playground before entering the park.

An adventure I'm not sure I wanted Ella
to have...but she didn't fall in.

Navigating the length of three trees on his hands and
knees.  

There are about 200 Berber monkeys living on Monkey Mountain: the monkeys live free in a 20-hectare fenced forest.  At the entrance, we were given a handful of popcorn, each, along with the rules of the park.  We would see a trail running through the park, blocked off by a wooden fence.  The monkeys that wanted to be fed would sit, perched, on that wooden fence: those we could offer a piece of popcorn, on an outstretched, flat hand.  Otherwise, we weren't to touch or approach any of the monkeys, especially the babies, whose protective mommies might object.

Ella and Alex couldn't wait to get started, but when the big moment came, but Alex got a little freaked out.  His first customer, instead of taking the single piece of popcorn, tried to reach for Alex's entire  handful.  Alex backed away, collected himself, and shook his head at the monkey, saying "No, no," gravely, as I've seen him do so many times with Joey, before realizing that this particular small thing probably couldn't be reasoned with. And then Alex wisely off-loaded his popcorn on to Dennis.

All along the path signs and bits of trivia about the monkeys, including a sign about reading monkey facial expressions. I was interested to learn that these male monkeys have trouble forming relationships, and usually it was caring for the children that best brought the males together together. 


But as we watched Dennis try to feed the monkeys, we could sort of see that behavior.  The monkeys would bristle when tall, bearded Dennis would approach.  But Dennis carried Joey with him throughout the park, and as soon as Dennis squatted down and Joey held out his hand, the monkeys would relax and warm towards Dennis, too.


We also learned that the females are in charge of a family of Berbers, and leadership is passed from mother to daughter; however, within a family unit, there is a leader of the males as well, who earns his status by negotiating himself into a position of power.  Ella put it more succinctly: "So there's a queen in charge, and a president for the boys."

Such an interesting forest

I just can't tell you how enchanting this place was, with its spooky dark trees, with the monkeys rustling through them, and then, here and there, a little monkey sitting calmly, deigning to be fed, like a regal little hermit.  The kids all did a wonderful job of following the rules, and they loved the whole experience.

The monkeys weren't the only animals looking for a meal in the park.  When we first arrived, we noticed a neatly-spaced line of storks standing on top of the restaurant.  After dinner, as we walked toward the monkey enclosure, we heard a large flurry as the storks all took flight and then settled around a ranger who had set out some food, to bring the storks closer for a talk he was starting. 

Here, fishy-fishy-fishy!

The gift shop also sold bags of stale bread, fifty cents each,  for feeding the fish in the lake in the middle of the park.  We bought a bag, but we found the fish to be sluggish and shy, perhaps because the weather is turning.

The park was also home to some deer and ibex, although these weren't for feeding.  Joey realize this as we made our move to leave the park.  He stopped to study the map, pointing out the places we'd gone: "I feed monkeys, I feed fish, I feed ducks...hey! I no feed deer! HEY!"  I don't know how I'll ever be able to take him back to a regular zoo, now that he believes all animals are for feeding.

Ella and Dennis demonstrate a Swiss
gym class game

Before loading the kids back in the car for the rest of the day's drive, we got them some ice cream and let them play a little longer.  High on sugar, Ella and Alex explained a game that, apparently, they both have learned to play in gym class. All the kids in the class cross their arms in front of themselves and hop in one foot.  The object of the game is to bump into the other kids: if you get thrown off balance, you're out.  It's...different.

Ella and Alex had a great time playing, although Alex quickly realized he was never going to win.  "Aw, this isn't going to work. You're bigger than me," he conceded, before the lightbulb went off. "Hey, Joey...want to play?"

Our google-approved route to our next hotel, the Jägerhaus, turned out to be under construction, so we had to improvise, following a long detour.  It took us a few minutes to figure out that the detour signs with the "U" and an arrow weren't pointing out a place to make a U-turn.  "U" is for Umleitung, or "detour."  And it was a long one, but pretty, as it took us through miles and miles of apple orchards.

We pulled in at dinner time, and we were happy to discover that the hotel restaurant was extremely child-friendly.  Apparently each family staying at the hotel has an assigned table,which we found slightly presumptuous since the hotel wasn't full-board.  But dinner was delicious, with a large kids' menu, so, in the end, we weren't complaining complaining.  

Dennis tried what was called a specialty of the region (Swabia): sausage ravioli, coated in ham and then baked cheese, and it was every bit as awesome as it sounds. They also specialize in spätzle in this area, which was what I had, with a creamy mushroom sauce. I think I like it here.

There's a cute little playroom in the hotel basement, and a playground outside, too, where the kids went while Dennis and I finished our dinners.  And now, as I write, Ella and Alex are curled in a bed; Joey was miffed at being left out and tried to convince me that he was too big for a portable bed, now.  Alex, sweetly, tried to talk up the little bed, telling me "Oh, mom, I wish I make him happy by trading with him, but I really am too big."

But really, Joey was just being contrary because he was tired.  He was snoring less than a minute after we turned out the lights, as has been the theme for this vacation.  I really feel like we're doing things right.