Wildnispark

Last weekend we went to the Wildnispark Langenberg (http://www.wildnispark.ch/). Its a nature trail in the woods, where you can walk past animals in thewild . They are behind a fence, so that can't attack you (and vice versa) but the setting is more natural than a zoo. Even the animalsare quite different from the ones we had seen till datein the zoo. The woods are beautiful and nice for a long walk, even without the animals.

We first saw some moose, didn't realise till now that they are really quite big (and quite daft looking).

Then we walked past the deers and S and A had a great time picking up leaves and feeding them. The deer were quite friendly, and one even gave A a friendly lick! Then we saw some reindeer and S was excited to see the animals which carry Santa to the houses.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

The trail went on for a while, past wolves (we didn't sight any) and wild pigs till we came to the picnic area. Many families had brought elaborate picnic baskets and had lit fires from the logs lying around the place and it looked like a blast. We were not so well prepared and had to make do with lunch from the cafe there. That wasn't so bad, it overlooked a small pond where bears came to drink water and A had fun looking out for Baloo.

After lunch we went to the children's playarea which had a lot of unique stuff. One was a set of hanging seesaws, where there were two criss crossing logs and ropes hanging down from the ends of the logs, and if you sat on one end, the person on the other end would go up, and when they came down you would go up! There were many climbing frames and ropes, and a swing going from one tree to another. S has great fun (think it overshadowed the animals!) and it was a welcome break from the long walk.

We saw a family with twins (about 21/2 years old) and triplets (about 6 months old), and I was amazed. How do people manage here, with so

little help? I can barely manage my two! And they still find the enthu to bring the kids out to nature trails and parks, I would just be dying of exhaustion at home!

After the park, we saw some Ibex . One of them seemed to be nodding off, and we took a cue from it and decided to head back home in time for an afternoon siesta.

Zurich has become quite cold now, and we were all so tired after walking around that we slept straight for 2 hours in the afternoon.