The eye of the tiger

The past weekend which was luckily a long one due to the bank holiday on December 8th was not only used for some Christmas shopping on both Saturday and Monday but we also visited after quite a while again the zoo in Schoenbrunn on Sunday. It was a pretty cold and humid day and therefore the zoo was not overrun too much, but we were well prepared with warm outfit and we weathered the drizzle. We really missed the sights and smell of the giraffes (amazing how intense they smell!!), watched little Fu Long, the baby-panda, sleeping and were witness to the feeding of the two cheetahs, who were hunting the dead rabbit that was swished through their cage on a lift in order to give them some exercise and the visitors some thrill.

Unfortunately we missed the feeding of the family of the Siberian tigers which had offspring a few months ago and so we only could watch the one of the young-ones playing with some huge bone and nibbling it, the other small one and daddy sleeping very well in front of the crowd and mommy overlooking the peaceful family. The tigers pretty much resemble their small relatives, the house cats, and do look quite cuddly, but one does not want to cuddle with them as one might not survive that TLC.

Should you ever look into this cat's eyes, keep your mind crystal clear!

Given the humidity paired with the low temperatures were biting we skipped the feeding of the seals and only spent some time watching some other young members of the zoo-family – the ice-bear twins followed by a walk through the garden of the emperor’s summer-castle and warming up with some mulled wine at the Christmas market in front of the castle. This rounded up Sunday afternoon perfectly and the fact that we did not have to go to work on Monday was the icing on the cake. We could get used to that! By now the week is well advanced and we are looking forward to Sandra and Flo visinting us from Thursday onwards.

Kerstin & Markus