Skip to main content

Edinburgh - Edinburgh Zoo

Edinburgh Zoo is a short bus ride from Princes Street. We arrived nice and early in order to maximise our animal-seeing time. Admittance is £16.50 for adults. There are plenty of animals to see, although sadly we didn’t get to see all of them! The orangutan enclosure was closed for medical reasons and the Sumatran tiger was hiding from us!
20150711_100714
Zebras
20150711_094432
Koala Bear
Edinburgh Zoo is the only zoo in the UK which plays host to koala bears and giant pandas. There are currently four koalas.
Hello Tian Tian
Hello Tian Tian
20150711_111528
Tian TIan with her bamboo
It was recently revealed in the news that Tian Tian is pregnant, so the zoo had warned that visitors might not be able to see her. However, Yang Guang will be encouraged to come out for regular feedings. For the pandas, you have to book a viewing slot. During our viewing slot (about 11am), Tian Tian was sat with her back to the visitors eating bamboo. She reached to the side table for more bamboo, nearly losing her balance in the process. Eventually, she walked over to the side table and laid down, greeting the visitors with a happy face…and eating more bamboo, of course.
Yang Guang, on the other hand, was sleeping in the mini shed. He was very well hidden and didn’t come out.
20150711_104615
Asiatic Lions
20150711_110512
Penguins enjoying the sun!
Other highlights include the Asiatic Lions and Penguin Rock.
I would advise buying your tickets online as the queues were quite long when we arrived. Another tip is to go later on in the day – when we walked around in the early morning, many of the animals were not visible yet (because they are sleeping?). You can see more animals from the early afternoon, and there are a lot to see here!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Morrisons Gingerbread House

We recently got one of these Gingerbread House DIY sets from Morrisons, which looks very Christmassy. The photo on the box looked very impressive, I doubted I could recreate this look! …And despite my efforts, I could not! I tried my best! Included in the box are the gingerbread, plastic tray, packet of white icing and assorted sweets for decoration. The icing is already pre-made but requires you to massage it for 1 minute to soften it. However, I needed longer than this because the icing was still too hard. The gingerbread house comes in six pieces which are assembled with help of the plastic tray and some icing. This was fairly easy to do! The gingerbread smells delicious that I have to impose some self-control and not eat it… The tricky bit (and messy) was decorating the house. I found icing was difficult to do – sometimes it was too hard to get out of the bag, and sometimes it would not stick to the gingerbread itself! Trying to ice the windows and doors was a nightmar...

Edinburgh - Eteaket Tea Room and Ibis Hotel

We arrived on a Thursday afternoon. Luckily for us, the sun was shining as we made our way to the Eteaket tea room on Frederick Street. Eteaket is famed for its teas, and they supply many local restaurants and other cafes. The tea room itself is quite spacious and full of customers, which shows how popular it is. As well as teas, light lunches and afternoon teas are also on the menu; something to suit any occasion. I opted for a high tea, with Royal Earl Grey tea. The high tea is priced at £8.45 and includes half a sandwich of your choice (I had Scottish Ham and Cheddar Cheese), scone (fruit or plain) and a mini cake (I think I had lemon cake). Tea is also included. Eteaket uses loose leaf tea, good quality and better tasting. The waitress also brough a mini timer. When the sands run out, the tea has brewed for long enough and is ready to drink after you remove the filter. What a beautiful cup of tea! The food was tasty and filling too, making it a great value high tea...

Hey Pikachu!

On the back of Pokemon Go, there seems to be an increase of Pokemon merchandise everywhere. I got this Pikachu portable phone charger from Currys at £17.99, perfect for on the go (and playing Pokemon Go!)  Pokemon XYZ has just ended in Japan, and it is a fantastic ending (I won't give it away!) - the last few episodes are especially emotional and a great end to what has been an action packed season! A lot of people say it is the greatest season since Indigo League! The Sun and Moon anime trailers has been appearing online, and it seems like a big backward step in terms of the storytelling. A lot of people have mocked the animation style, in particular, Ash's design. Time will tell if the anime can gain as much fans as XY/XYZ...