Visiting the Zoo in Antwerp

Kabouter wakes up early lately. Much too early to my liking. But it has one advantage: a little after 9 we were already on the go with a plan to go an visit the Zoo in Antwerp. This oldest zoo of Belgium in the city center of Antwerp, bordering the magnificent central train station.

So we chose to go via train which was another highlight for the children.

Our subscription to Planckendael also gives us access to the Zoo but now that Beertje turned 3 , we also had to get him an access card.  And then we were ready to go.

I hadn't been in the Zoo since my nephew's first communion party 7 years ago! And before that since the school trips. I remembered an old small zoo with tiny cages that was in transition to reduce the number of animals (and move them to the bigger Planckendael) and get bigger exhibits.

Well the Zoo surely changed and improved and modernised in those 7 years.  The new monkey valley was pretty great. But somehow I was surprised there were a couple of giraffes and 2 elephants near the Egyptian temple. Mistakenly I was convinced those did not live in Antwerp anymore.  They have such better space in Planckendael and they could transform the exhibit in something great for a smaller anymore. 

I really enjoyed the Aquaria and the reptile house and also the Noctuarium is something you don't get to visit in each zoo. All in all the park is bigger than I remembered.  

At the end of the visit the children were hangry: tired and hungry for the delayed lunch time. But ice cream can fix almost any issue.  And then they were really happy to get back on the train with a quickly bough pick-nick.