Moscow Zoo!!!!!!!!

On Christmas Eve the snow decided to come down with a vengeance. Undeterred, I bundled up with five layers of thermals and assorted bits of woollen clothing, and after yet another delicious breakfast, I wandered off in search of the zoo.

The awesome concierge at the hotel not only talked me through where to go on the metro, she also printed out Google maps and gave me her mobile number in case I got lost. Wonderful.

I trotted off to the metro station and within about 20 minutes I was paying for my ticket. It was like I was a princess and had my very own Zoo, apart from the keepers, I was the only person in there! In what is becoming my new Christmas tradition (I spent Xmas Eve last year at Berlin Zoo with barely another punter in sight), I set off exploring. The first animal I saw was this little critter who was absolutely loving the snow!

In the next enclosure were the polar bears, a mum, a dad and two adorable cubs! These animals too, were undeterred by the weather and the sight of me in my black furry (acrylic) coat certainly got their attention!

The mum and kids were well away from dad, guess he was a bit grumpy

I stayed watching these adorable creatures till my feet began to freeze!



Luckily for me, I was close to the Monkey house, so before my feet froze and fell off I was in the warm. I'd forgotten about the coat, but my god it really caused a stir with the primates! The little ones were intrigued.

The gorilla however, thought he had competition for his wife's affections!

While the Orang utan family were all pretty curious.

I have to say that while I accept that in an ideal world there wouldn't be zoos and all animals would live in the wild and safe from harm from humans, I am grateful they exist because I get a chance to get up close to these wonderful creatures. However I did well up when I watched them in this small enclosure. Having seen the ones in Borneo living in the rainforest, swinging from tree to tree, it made me sad to see that little baby and know that he'll never have that joy.

I could have happily stayed in there all day but there were more animals to see, so I was once again out into the freezing cold. The snow was really coming down and the Zoo was resembling a ghost town! I found the big cat house and look at who was there!

Apart from the white tiger, there were these two


Finally, a trip to Moscow wouldn't be right without bumping into at least one of Alexander's relatives would it?

So there you have it, just a few of the fabulous creatures at Moscow Zoo, by then I was so cold there was nothing to do by nip off to the nearest caff for Spiced Apple Tea and Nutella and Banana filled pancakes!