To Eifel-Zoo at Lünebach-Pronsfeld

After we have first swum in the (a bit boring) swimming pool of the park we go to a zoo at Lünebach-Pronsfeld. It is an hour's drive, but when we arrive there is nobody at the ticket office. The gate is open so we just walk on, on to the animals. At the first loft Esmee runs and beckons us to come quickly, here is an animal to see. Wonderful that enthusiasm.

We have taken a children's animal book with about 100 animals and with each animal we check whether it also appears in the book. And yes, the alpaca is also there. Well, for convenience we call it a llama, but it seems that you can distinguish alpacas from the straight and pointed ears. And alpacas do not spit!

A stray peacock walks behind us for a while but quickly runs away when Esmee thinks that she can also follow the peacock. And running through the snow is always fun.
Then a man comes along on a tractor and that turns out to be the head of the park where we have to buy the tickets. So no free zoo entrance.

The park is not very big but there are plenty of animals to see although especially the larger animals do not have a lot of space.
There is also a cute miniature village with typical German houses and even a church and a castle. Just like a Madurodam (a miniature park in Holland) in miniature with about 30 buildings that look very realistic. The only thing missing is the gnomes.

We have been in this park 3 times in February, but every time we found it a bit less fun. In winter there is not much life, the train through the park does not drive and there is no restaurant where you can sit for a while. There are also a lot of animals inside and we do not get to see them all, so we feel that we still have missed a lot. And it is cold, it is a pity that you can not get inside anywhere! But given the handful of other visitors we encounter, it will not be financially acceptable to keep the reastaurant open.

The small animals, like this squirrel-like one, have a somewhat bare indoor loft and that goes for many of the lofts. That is why the park sometimes seems a bit sad and it is not fun for a lioness to have to walk around in a real small loft. The ungulates such as goats, donkeys and deer seem to have the most outdoor space, but of course they do not have to be secured as well and a simple fence or mesh keeps them inside the pasture.

This deer wants to be fed and since Teije and Esmee often feed deer, ducklings and other animals, it is difficult to explain why we should not do that in a zoo.
And the ostriches never have to be fed, says Esmee when she sees that they eat their own shit! She is completely full of the fact that these birds are indeed rooting in their own droppings with their beaks and she has never forgotten this little detail.

Around 60 animal species are kept in the zoo and on the large meadows along the paths mainly all sorts of deer, sheep, horses, and of course donkeys who come to us curious as they are. You can see almost all animals from very close and that is nice for children of course.
At a nice turret Esmee has to pose for me. You can see from her clothes that the photos were taken in 2 different years: on the right in 2010 and on the left in 2011.

The longest we stay with the collar bear when we walk back to the exit. He is a striking appearance in the snow and he apparently loves it because he makes a whole show of it for us: now he is sitting upright again, then he rolls back and forth through the snow while he keeps an eye on us. Almost a circus bear, says Esmee.
After about 2.5 to 3 hours we have seen the whole zoo, although in the summer you will definitely stay longer if there is a train on the site and the restaurant is open.

Now it's time for us to find something to eat and we soon find something where we can order Esmee's favorite dish: fries with real croquettes.
All that fat they have walk off at the end of the day because Teije and Esmee go directly to the pool when we are back at our house. But at the pool, at the bottom of the hill, they find out that they have forgotten Grandpa's swimsuit, so they have to go up the mountain one more time and we are quite high up.