Day Three - The Zoo

Breakfast was disappointing. I'd bought cheese, ham and butter the day before and appropriated the remaining honey from Phoebe's lunch. Spreading butter with a spoon is a little tricky but needs must. Man I needed a proper cup of tea.

We started day three proper by getting on the tram in the wrong direction. It had to happen. We got off again at the next stop. The kids thought we were stupid as did most of the other people on the tram.

Artis is the city zoo in Amsterdam and is fantastic. We easily filled a whole day there despite the cold. We went to watch the sea lions being fed but since the commentary was all in Dutch we didn't learn much. Fortunately it didn't really matter. Sea lions still leap for fish whatever the language.

There is a large butterfly house in the zoo which helped with thawing Paul's hands out, and a massive aquarium which everyone loved. I was genuinely amazed by how interested the girls were in most things, particularly the babies. Baby gorillas are officially the cutest thing in the world, followed closely behind by a day old zebra, a tiny chimpanzee and a baby elephant. Well not literally or that would be more like an old style circus.

It was on this day that a few people seemed to assume two things:

1. That the girls are twins. They kept going "aaaaaah" which we found amusing. It must have been the matching coats.
2. That we were Dutch. One couple stopped and asked us where something was. We looked bemused then she changed in broken English and after five minutes we realised what she meant by "ice bear". There aren't any.

The only negative I could see to the zoo was the size of the lion and elephant enclosures. Beingin a city obviously gives it space issues that Doncaster clearly doesn't suffer from.

We left after the purchase of yet another cuddly toy. A Penguin named Artis who has since been sewn his own duvet. At this rate the toys will need their own room let alone their own bedding.

We came back on the tram and ate at Wagamamas which of course is brilliant for families whatever country you are in. Then it was back to the room to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on the IPad.

  Another brilliant day. Great day out at the zoo,  we had only passed one sex shop so far (and everyone apart from me had been looking the other way at the time) and no-one had been hit by a bicycle. Winner.