Amsterdam: I AMSTERDAM (Artis Royal Zoo and NEMO Science Centre)

Remember when we were young? In primary school and when singing the birthday song would change the lyric to "you were born in the zoo" or "you live near the zoo". I could say, at least on of the two version is true. I live near the zoo. Honest

I live near the National Zoo in Malaysia. How near? I would be able to hear the sound of my favourite primate, the gibbon. I could imitate them too. Our house is close to the second entrance of the zoo, and on Saturdays and Sundays, it would be busy with visitors. If we wanted to go to the zoo, a short walk less than 5 minutes and we will be at the main entrance. That close.

So, when the children wanted to visit the zoo in Amsterdam I was excited. Excited to see the type of animals they have and it is one of the oldest zoo in the world. Founded in 1838, Artis or Natura Artis Magistra (Latin for Nature is the teacher of Arts and Science) is one of the oldest in Europe!

From the Amsterdam Centraal, we took the no 9 tram and alight at the Artis tram stop. 

The Artis main gate

the entrance

Again with the I AMSTERDAM card, just present at the ticket counter and he will print out a free ticket for you to enter.

The ticket for 2 person

But paid 2euros for the zoo map. 

Map of the zoo

Zoo information

The zoo has a planetarium but we did not stop. Fay already ran ahead of us to look at the camels, reindeer and watusi cows. 

The planetarium

The Camel Fields

Two humped camel and reindeer

Doing her best impression of camel

The weather was quite gloomy and temperature between 3-8deg Celsius. Cold is cold, but the windy condition in Amsterdam forced some animals to be indoors. We were walking beside the aviary, and it was empty. So we went into the 'Bird House' and 'Forest House' via the double automatic doors (in case the inhabitants flew away). Tropical forest setting inside.

some of the animals in the Forest House

The 'forest' with Saki monkey sleeping

Try and spot th elusive marmoset

Up close . A marmoset I believe.
A type of monkey. Must be looking at Madam

This one from Madam's camera. Different angle.

Wefie with the green Iguana

Different perspective of the Forest House

Sloth

Bird house (Aviary)

Laminated info card on birds within the aviary.
Have to return to its slot before exiting

Pelican, stork etc all in same enclosure

Next was the reptile kingdom. I have to admit it I wasn't that comfortable. The reptiles were very active! Slithering around. I shuddered....

Komodo Dragon

False Gharial

King Cobra...yikes!!!

Reticulated python

That's what its name" Red-headed rock agana". A common lizard you would find in Nigeria. Just look at the map..red shows its origin.

Next was the Lions. It occupied the Kerbert's Terrace since 1929. It was considered a revolutionary in its day because of it rendered iron bar and mesh unnecessary. Named after one of the zoo director, it provides the lion with much more space  than usual during that time. Features the lioness and lion side within the enclosure. Attached to the terrace is the Predator Gallery, but the zoo is renovating that particular area. So no animal was in sight that day.

I spy with my little eye - a pride of lions at the Kerbert's Lion Terrace. A national monument according to the zoo map

a lioness stretching 

Ladies side of the enclosure

The Lion King

giving us her dirty look...we are food to her. Madam is a week's meal worth... hahahaha

On the left is the Predator Gallery. On the right is the Hollandse Tuin (Dutch Garden)

The Hollandse Tuin (Dutch Garden) is also a
 National Monument according to the map

Elephant....ok mummy is rushing us.. sea lion show in a few minutes time

The vulture aviary is attached to the Lecture Hall. We just missed the zookeeper feeding the vulture. The aviary is huge! 

Since we missed the feeding of the vultre, next in line was the sea lion show at 11.30am. So it was a "Run Forrest, Run" scene for us.....

The vultures

Condor and Vulture has the longest wingspan

Fay having a go at the scale

If you have the chance to visit, not far from the aviary is the Savannah. Giraffes, springboks, zebras and ostriches in one big man made island and a walkway to the Savannekiosk (Savanna Kiosk). Well, Madam hustled us if we were to watch the sea lion show just outside the Butterfly Pavilion. Luckily we were a tad early.

The penguins

Beside the penguins, the sea lions. Four of them.

Doing their best to smile, Madam few minutes earlier became the Incredible Hulk...rushing the children for the show.

Talk about timing, 11.30am sharp the zookeeper entered the compound and started to talk to us in Dutch. Of course every one speaks Dutch...hahahaha..anyway, the seals became excited when she bought in a bucket of fish. 

The zookeeper flicks the fish to the seals
which it expertly caught

Roll call and inspection of each seals

The feeding frenzy

Reaching for the fish!

Penguin and sea lion swimming together

The show was just about 10 minutes. It was just feeding and body inspection of the seals by the zookeeper. Later they joined the penguins together in the big aquarium. There was a viewing gallery down below...and what we found was these..countless artist with crayon and charcoal drawing and colouring their subject of interest. The sea lion and penguin.

The artist

The subject inspecting the artist's work

The rest of the group

Another artist with her own interpretation
on an orange paper

Hello!!!

Poor Fay, penguin not so friendly with her

We moved on to the next interesting thing and true enough, we found this statue near its domain. The Gorillas.

Meerkat? 

The gorilla enclosure (together with the meerkat)

But since it was cold outside, the band of gorillas were inside. I've never seen one, except the orang utan in Sepilok, Sabah in Malaysia. It was majestic! A distant relative of human, scientifically share the same family - Homonidae. They interact with each other, even responding to us who came into their domain (my GoPro had the LED light on...)

The head of the band was a huge male. A silverback. He looked and slowly approached us. The eyes were unmistakably human. Sizing us up and slowly but surely, came to our side of the compound and slowly eating his meal. 

A few days ago, I downloaded a picture of this gorilla online on Instagram under the name @atfiesmy and a friend asked if I took it from the internet. Nope, these are the set of the pictures. A small collection for the purpose of this blog. Here they are..The sequence:

Whatcha lookin' at?

Interestingly, here there were a lot of paintings by the school children..

Then it was the insectarium. A former food shed that was converted to what it is now in 2005. 

spot the toad

The bees free to come and go..

a beehive in a transparent casing

spider

How we found the aquarium was like this. After a few cups of coffee, naturally the need for toilet would arise. I was looking for the toilet to relief myself. But when in emergency, I forgot to look at the map. I was whimpering...demmit...really need one now or it will be any secluded spot. Voila!, I came to a big old building and there it was, a toilet. So happy. I found out it was the aquarium and told the rest to come over. It's time to look for Nemo.

a tank with a scenery like the canals in Amsterdam

Info on zoo, explorers etc..skeleton of a whale hanging from the ceiling

sea horses

the arapaima or piracucu

piranhas

The main gallery

Picking up speed, we sped by the pheasantry where the macaws were. I leave it to the children wherever they want to go. Since no one was interested to follow the map, let them have it. At least we stopped for a while at the Afrrican wild dogs, saw the red panda and into the Small Mammal House.

Here was the lemur, binturong and some small primates. Too many pictures to scan thru...

"King Julian"

the Spider monkey (Ben 10)

Ibex

OK, the children were making noise already. Need to top up. It was pass lunch time...and still need to go to the NEMO Science Centre. We exited the zoo, had kebab in a cafe opposite the zoo... and took a tram to NEMO or anywhere closer to it. Need to do some serious walking, but luckily they were up to it.

at last...now for some lunch

they serve halal food

The zoo entrance from the cafe

We had our fill, walked to the tram stop and board a number 9 tram...when suddenly, they stop short of the last stop we should walk to NEMO. Now it will be really a long walk to the place. But since it was cool, it was ok. We had fun too. 

by far the 'slimmest' house in Amsterdam

The NEMO

It was a looooong walk to NEMO. Luckily no complains, only some drama by Ben who needs to go to the toilet. You can see him running towards Madam. Again it was free for I AMSTERDAM pass. The children were happy. What did I do? I fall asleep....great. It was Madam's turn to entertain the children. Lucky me. Got the following pictures from Madam's Fb.

shhhh...scientist at work

writing the findings, btw Fay is in the
Mad Science club at school

Nice and beautiful.....that's what it says

Info for teens..ohhh la la

hurry up Madam!

Done! We had to skip the Maritime Museum. Clearly not enough time when travelling with children. But it was fun and it was quite a nice walk. We traced our way back to Amsterdam Centraal walking on the bridge beside NEMO. Had to carry Fay for a while. Clearly she was tired walking. We arrived at Zaandam around 7pm, Madam and Fay proceeded to buy dinner. Again, drama by Ben....luckily it was a short walk to the hotel. Toilet to the rescue!!!