Except of course that the information Google Maps gave Crowthorne would have added an extra fifty minutes to her journey time...
It doesn’t always work out for intercity journeys, I admit. Trying to plan trips from Berlin to Münster to Cologne, Warsaw to Łódź and just about anything at all in Czech Republic was a no-go for me. However the shorter journeys within one city I find to be very reliable usually. I used it to travel from Prague to Prague Zoo, Brno to Brno Zoo, Berlin to Berlin Zoo and Berlin Tierpark, Münster to Allwetter Zoo and Cologne to Kölner Zoo, from Arnhem to Burgers’ Zoo, and from Arnhem to Rhenen, all of which worked very well for me. As I said in my post though, for planning a trip from Cologne city centre to Cologne Zoo (a very short journey), the information is definitely 100% correct.
Maybe Google just hasn't had the Duisburg tram system added. Bahn.de have much better results (thanks @lintworm ) - just over an hour journey instead of Google's over 2 hours. As much as I'm OK with traveling 2-3 hours each way for a zoo, I'd much rather it was a lot less where possible
Funny thing is, I haven't been able to replicate this result on Google Maps myself - but it definitely has not had the tram system added, as attempting to search for a transit route between the two points in question defaults to telling you to walk to the zoo which is not quite as bad as the long roundabout method Crowthorne got. https://goo.gl/maps/Q2zgegFizT52
I wonder why it was telling me to go to Duissern and walk from there? It's a longer walk for a start. If it had just told me to walk from Duisburg central to the zoo, at 26minutes I would have been fine with that (and saves a little money). Silly Google.
Ok so slightly odd question, but an important one; what is the food offering like at these zoos? I'm guessing Cologne is probably pretty decent for its size, and I've seen the infamous photo of the hotdog at Duisburg was just wondering if it was worth eating at the zoos or bringing food in (or stuffing our pockets at breakfast)
I would recommend to eat at the restaurant in Cologne for sure, but only if you like the fast food style of course. They have a fair choice of dishes, I had their cheeseburger which was good (you put all your own salad and sauce on so can pick and choose what you like and in what quantities) but in hindsight I wish I had ordered their safari nuggets (chicken nuggets in the shape of various animals) because I’m a 28 year old toddler and would have literally gained so much joy from that experience! Unfortunately I had just had chicken nuggets the day before at Allwetterzoo, though. I think you can find a menu online if you Google for it. Edit: I found the menu for you - http://www.zoo-event.com/images/PDF/SpeisekarteZooRestaurant.pdf !
Thank you Becca, that's really helpful especially the menu, whenever I tried following the link on the website I got a 404 error. I'm happy with fast food style, so long as there's food involved
At Cologne I had a bowl of chilli from a shack near the tigers (I think) which almost had me returning for a second portion. Duisburg to be fair, has a variety of sausages in bread.
For some reason the link only seems to work on the German version of the website. They had an awesome selection of sauces, too, which really matters to somebody like me who lives for sauce! They had sweet and sour sauce and pommes-frites sauce to dip in, and I had burger sauce (Big Mac style) and tomato relish on my cheeseburger. I love onions so I made my cheeseburger really oniony. Their fries were pretty good, too. Thinking about it is making me so hungry!!! Fast food is definitely my favourite type of food, so this was a real treat for me!
I kind of really want to sample this Duisburg delicacy, just to be able to say that I’ve had the experience!
Just in case anyone hasn't seen the photo: https://www.zoochat.com/community/attachments/gourmet-lunch-duisburg-zoo-sept-2010-jpg.4102/
Definitely - the weather was too cold for them to be allowed outside access when I visited in February, more's the pity!
