Adventure #3: Good friends and A GIANT petting Zoo!

The weekend of February 20th we received a fabulous invitation to go visit an old friend of Berkley's family in the nearby town of Bottrop. Hanna had been a visiting student in the Portland area years ago and had spent some time living with his parents. They've stayed in contact over the years and we were excited to see her and her family. 

On Saturday morning, we hopped on a train and headed to Bottrop. For some reason when heading out of town, figuring out which train to get on, on which platform, at the right time always seems to be a challenge, but this time we GOT it. Whew. OF course the kids loved the train, and the train seemed to love the kids :)

Hanna met us at the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), and from there we took a bus to a GIANT PETTING ZOO. It was like a regular zoo, except you could feed all, well, almost all of the animals. Except for all you could feed them was carrots. Luckily Hanna had chopped up two monsterous bags of carrots to share and we were amply supplied. 

From the get-go, it was fun. I mean, who doesn't like place a weird deer-antelope thing will walk right up to a fence and eat out of your hand?? 

Well, it turns out, Juniper doesn't. She was terrified.  There was no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks she was going to put her hand out and have a large beast approach her and EAT HER ARM instead of the treat. She was silently clinging to me, and I felt like the mother of a spider monkey. I guess I can't really blame her - I mean, this crazy goat was one of the first things we saw:

And then we had this fabulous hog to entertain us:

But as we walked, it wore off a bit. And then she found some baby bunnies and ducks, eager to pay attention to her. She was in heaven, and especially loved the ducks since, at the time, that was the only animal noise she would impersonate. From there it was smooth sailing and by the end, she was feeding the fabulous little deer.

Bridger, on the other hand, had nothing to hold back, and managed to feed a lot of animals, run around a lot and get very dirty (which is a fabulous sign of good fun).

After a good time at the petting zoo, we walked to a bus stop, past a rabbit that had been hit by a car, but made it to the sidewalk before it died (successfully distracting all of the children from that takes talent after visiting a petting zoo) and caught a bus that took us back to Hanna's house. 

The kids played super well together, which was just such a relief. It was the first time since we'd moved that Bridger was able to play with kids his own age that don't speak English without being hindered by a language barrier. Hanna's kids are great, and adorable of course, and made it easy and fun for him and Juniper. Ahhh...it's so nice when that happens. 

Hanna and her husband fed us an authentic German meal (Wurst with potato salad, bread and such). We talked and laughed and shared our mutual love of kettle corn while the kids played.  I've got to be honest - Hanna's English is probably better than mine, and she is stinkin' hilarious. I really, really enjoyed her and her family. 

Before we left, they walked us down to the bus stop that would take us back to the train station. We chatted, and decided to take a photo, JUST AS THE BUS appeared around the corner! This was the only group shot we got of all of us, and her husband was nice enough to be the one to take it. We laughed as we ran to get on the bus seconds after we took the photo. What a hoot! 

My take away from this trip? Past connections made are always, always valuable. Hanna is great, and we're blessed to have her nearby! And don't let the freaky goat at the beginning ruin your petting zoo experience ;)