Like a Rhinestone Cowboy: FunkyGibbon in Europe

Personal Background

For those who don’t know I’m going to start off with a little about my personal circumstances. It will help explain how, why and when I travel. As my location shows I currently live in China, but I’m actually from the UK. For the past two years, and hopefully several more in the future, I’ve been teaching English at a university here. One of the perks of this job is that I have two long holidays per year, a second is proximity to a variety of attractive Asian destinations, and a third is that the university pays for a return ticket to my home country once per year (or two singles). This allows me to travel in both Asia and Europe quite cheaply. As an additional bonus, my employer is not at all concerned with the exact details of my flights, as long as they come in under budget. For example, last summer my ‘flight’ from London to Shanghai included a weeklong ‘layover’ in Prague, and a day in Frankfurt. This summer I have all of July and August off and I will spend almost all of that in Europe, including a large chunk of time with family and friends in the UK.


Trip Background

The genesis of the trip I will take this summer, and therefore this thread, was the sudden map-prompted realization that Duisburg and Arnhem are in fact very close together. For whatever reason, I had always assumed Duisburg was in eastern Germany. I think a lot of journeys start this way: “Oh, so I could go there, and then there, and then there!” (Warning: this next section is going to ramble and be incredibly boring. Best to skip it.) For the last couple of years I have had the desire to visit the Netherland’s best zoos. Now I realized I could, and should, combine them with Duisburg and Cologne. But wait, what’s this? As any self-respecting zoonerd knows, the Ruhr (the region where Duisburg and Cologne are located) is rife with good zoos. So much the better. I probably couldn’t visit all of them, but I’d fit the better ones in and not worry about the rest. But then my plans hit another ‘snag’. I want to visit different regions of Europe and the best zoos therein quite methodically, so that over the next five years I hit most of the top-tier collections on the continent. But if I did the Ruhr and Holland this time, when would I realistically visit Belgium, with its three powerful offerings?

Belgium was thus added to the itinerary, and the BenNeRuhr dream took shape. Given the short distances between collections, I decided to do the trip by bicycle. Obviously I would also include non-zoo days in the major cities in the region, as well as any other sights worth seeing. However, the more I planned, the more the trip ballooned as I discovered zoos or other destinations that I couldn’t miss. Eventually it became so unwieldy that I felt I was going to have to make some fairly painful compromises (worth noting that at this point I thought I only had six weeks total in Europe). Luckily, a fresh realization showed me the way forward. Due to some bizarre and as yet unexplained connection between China and Denmark, I have been slowly but steadily acquiring Danish friends here. So the new plan was to visit the Ruhr zoos, then make my way north to the land of pork and Lego, stopping along the way for any noteworthy collections. Belgium and the Netherlands were thus preserved together for a future trip.

(For anyone wondering why I chose the Ruhr over the Netherlands and Belgium this time, it is almost literally as simple as saying I would rather see the last Amazonian River Dolphin in Europe than the last Eastern Gorilla. In general I suspect I will enjoy the Dutch zoos more, but now I won’t know that for a couple of years.)

 

Itinerary

This trip is going to take place in the last two weeks of July and the first week of August. Exact dates are as yet unknown. I have at this point a fairly detailed itinerary for most of the trip, but I want to share it on ZooChat now, before it’s finalized and booked, so that I can get feedback, criticism and suggestions. There are some notable zoos that I’m leaving out, and I’d like to hear from people who know their stuff, especially if you disagree with my choices. I think I’ve done my research quite well, but please tell me your thoughts. Please do not run to ZTL, spend five minutes there, and then dump what you’ve found in this thread. I’m looking for informed opinions.

I do have scope to add more days onto this trip, however I’m a little wary of burning out and so I want to avoid visiting zoos just because they are there. I want them to be really worth it. I’ve also allowed for regular ‘non-zoo’ days; these can be moved, but are otherwise inviolate. Any suggestions of non-zoo activities for those days or in the evenings are welcome.

I’ve grouped the trip into geographical sections, and after each section I will also list what I believe to be the noteworthy collections I’ve elected to skip in that area. I expect these to form the basis of any discussion.


Section C

Day 0: Fly to Cologne : Cologne (italics indicate where I will sleep)
Day 1: Cologne Zoo : Cologne
Day 2: Non-zoo day (NZD), Cologne : Cologne
Day 3: Zoo Wuppertal : Dortmund
Day 4: Zoo Dortmund: Dortmund
Day 5: Zoom Gelsenkirchen : Duisburg
Day 6: Zoo Duisburg : Duisburg

Zoos missed: GaiaZoo Kerkrade, Zoo Krefeld (Aquazoo Dusseldorf will still be closed)


Section M

Day 7: NZD Munster : Munster
Day 8: Allwetterzoo Munster : Munster
Day 9: NaturZoo Rheine : Hanover

Zoos missed: Tierpark Nordhorn, Zoo Osnabruck


Section H

Day 10: Weltvogelpark Walsrode : Hamburg
Day 11: NZD Hamburg : Hamburg
Day 12: Tierpark Hagenbeck : Hamburg
Day 13: Naval history day, Kiel : Hamburg

Zoos missed: Erlebnis-Zoo Hanover


Section D

Day 14: Den Bla Planet Aquarium : Copenhagen
Day 15: Zoo Kobenhavn : Copenhagen (the only zoo on this trip I have visited before)
Day 16: NZD Copenhagen : Odense
Day 17: Odense Zoo : Odense
Day 18: Givskud Zoo : Aarhus

Zoos missed: Krokodille Zoo


Section A

This is where it gets a little hazy. I’ll spend the next few days with friends in Aarhus and Aalborg. I am unlikely to visit Aalborg Zoo, and very likely to visit one out of the following two collections near Aarhus: Skandinavisk Dyrepark and Ree Park. Randers Tropical Zoo is also an option, but an unlikely one I think. Somewhere around Day 24 I’ll fly back to the UK from Aarhus.


Final Thoughts

The two decisions I’m particularly unsure about are Hanover and Kerkrade. For almost the entire time I have been planning this I had included Kerkrade instead of Dortmund, but recently Dortmund’s collection, proximity to other zoos, and reachability-via-my-InterRail-Card have pushed it ahead. Hanover seems to be universally underloved, but it IS a major zoo, and an iconic city.

It’s past my bedtime now, so I’ll save some logistical stuff for tomorrow, but in case anyone is wondering I do intend to write brief reports for each zoo, despite my atrocious track record for this kind of thing. As the title suggests I also intend to use this thread for any other European collections I visit in the foreseeable future as well.

Good night all!

 

Why "like a Rhinestone Cowboy"?

It's bugging me to know, is it an anagram including the word Rhino (or have I been reading too many Craptic Crosswords in Viz)?

 

There may have been a load of compromisin' on the road to Funky Gibbon's horizon, but, soon, he will be where the lights are shining down on him, getting cards and letters and messages on this thread from people he don't even know. Perhaps he is just dreaming' of the things he can do with a subway token and a dollar tucked inside his shoe?

 

Excellent choices of zoos; Zoom is the one which many zoo nerds take issue with, but it is certainly worths being, especially given the absence fo Hannover from the itinerary. Krefeld is lovely - a fantastic smaller zoo, with a beautiful bird house, very good gorilla enclosure, and some other highlights. But you can't do everything! Given the burn out you felt in Usti last year, is one NZD sufficient? Cologne is a great city; Dusseldorf's old town is charming too.

I'd definitely concur with this choice - but some may put in a clan for Osnabruck (I didn't enjoy it, especially, myself, but that Anthony Sheridan sings its praises - for what that's worth). Munster is a lovely city in which to spend a day. Rheine Zoo is another of those smaller gems.

Again, two great zoos - and one which I would agree is the one to miss, even though it is very striking. It's worth spending the night at the hotel next door to Walsrode if it fits your budget - this would enable you to really make the most fo your time in the place.

Of these, I've only visited Copenhagen - but these are all certainly worth a visit.

A superb itinerary - and a very ambitious one too! I am sure you have worked out the transport logistics; my only question would be as to whether, without a car, you are possibly attempting to squeeze too much in (but if it were me, I would be doing likewise!).

 

Kudos for travelling by bike and train (my two favorite modes of transport, though I do not bike on vacation, only at home).

 

It's just a fairly dull play on the fact that some of this trip, and a future trip to the Netherlands, will be following the course of the river Rhine. But I do like Sooty's lyrical suggestions!

Walking these streets alone
There's been a load of compromising
Getting cards and letters from people I don't even know
and With a subway token and a dollar tucked into my shoe,
all seem quite appropriate!

Other rejected titles included:

"There's a Ruhrmour FG's taking a trip"
"Struggling to Copenhagen"
and "Saxon the beach".

Ultimately Rhinestone Cowboy won because it was one of my dad's driving songs when I was very young.

 

Transport

As previously mentioned I had planned to cycle the original version of this trip. That has been abandoned for three reasons. Firstly, it no longer makes any sense to take ferries from the UK to and from Dunkirk and Rotterdam respectively. I would be using my own bike and have no desire to faff around with airlines and hold allowances and so on. Secondly, cycling obviously takes longer than motorised transport and so it would have extended a more modest version of this trip significantly. But thirdly and most importantly, now I'm going all the way to Denmark it just makes no sense at all distance and timewise. I still hope to cycle in Holland next time though.

Public transport is the way to go then, and fortunately this is something that Germany seems to do rather well. I've opted to buy an InterRail Pass. There are different versions of these but mine basically allows me to travel for free, within Germany, on any six days in a one month period. There are versions that give you different numbers of travel days (3,4,6,8) and of course you can also get the inappropriately named Global pass which allows you to travel anywhere within Europe. For non-european residents the Eurail pass system also offers 2,3 or 4 country passes. As I am resident in China I am actually eligible for this, but it's slightly more paperwork, and unnecessary for me.

My six day pass cost me €182 plus €8 postage. To test the value of this I searched all the intercity journeys I'll be taking on eurail.cc (thanks @CGSwans for the tip). With the cheaper advance fares currently available the total came to €184! Obviously buying tickets on the day would be considerably more expensive. With the €6 extra I've paid for the pass I've bought a huge amount of flexibility and convenience. The only tradeoff is that I have to pack all my train journeys into six days, but to my surprise this was easy.

1) Cologne-Wuppertal-Dortmund
2)Dortmund-Gelsenkirchen-Duisburg
3)Duisburg-Munster
4)Munster-Rheine-Hanover
5)Hanover-Walsrode-Hamburg
6)Hamburg-Kiel-Hamburg

My train from Hamburg to Copenhagen will be bought separately, also in advance. I'm excited for that journey because the train actually drives onto the ferry.

Some more notes about the pass:
I bought it in a sale which ends tonight! (March 31st) I saved €32 which is significant.
It gives me free S-Bahn (subway) use as well, but I'm unclear if this in general or just on my travel days. I'm guessing the latter.
For €202 I could have got the eight day pass. The value is tempting, but I genuinely don't need it (probably).

Some readers may wonder what purpose the pass really serves as my savings are fairly small, especially considering the sale. Most of my journeys are about an hour or less in length. If instead my itinerary looked something like Hamburg => Cologne => Munich => Berlin => Hamburg it would be a very different story.

For Denmark I will not bother with a pass. My time there will be much more driven by what my friends want to do, and in general I'm travelling a lot less. I plan to use coaches more there, which tend to be cheaper as well. For Germany I want the extra speed and reliability of trains, as my schedule is not really forgiving of delays.

 

Sounds good and you will get a very good overview of German zoos and their styles .

For section C, Cologne and Duisburg are indeed not to be missed and then there is indeed the choice between Wuppertal, Duisburg, Dortmund, Krefeld, Gaiazoo (and I would also include Burgers Zoo (1.5 hour from Cologne) and Frankfurt (45 minutes from Cologne)). If you are doing it on public transport you can probably visit Krefeld after you finish in Duisburg, as that zoo does not take a whole day and Krefeld can be easily seen in 2-3 hours.

Depending on what you prefer in zoos you could drop either Wuppertal, Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund or Munster for a Dutch zoo / Frankfurt. Wuppertal is probably the most enjoyable of these 4 and combines some standard German zoo architecture with a nice array of rare species, especially concerning birds. Gelsenkirchen is interesting as it is one of Germany's "erlebnis-zoos", Hannover being the other. A somewhat interesting concept, which is in terms of theming better in Hannover, though in terms of animal enclosures I would say Gelsenkirchen is the better of the two. In general zoo nerds prefer Hannover over ZOOM, though I don't, but it would be very interesting to include at least one of the two.

I would personally consider dropping Munster, which is a complete zoo, but lacks any outstanding enclosures or extreme rarities. In terms of design it is very much a 70ies zoo still, with lots of concrete. You could use that day to go to Dortmund and go to Gaiazoo or Burgers Zoo instead. Gaiazoo is really a good weather zoo only (where Munster is very suitable for bad weather, as is Burgers Zoo). Dortmund may not be the most aesthetically pleasing park, but the collection is interesting and the enclosures often fulfill the needs of the inhabitant and I found it a pleasant park to walk around in.

I completely agree with leaving out Osnabruck, which I found very disappointing, it is transforming more and more in a badly executed version of Hannover. Rheine is a real gem though and be sure not to miss the African wolf, whose enclosure is tucked away next to the Lion-tailed macaques enclosure on the way to the birdhouse.

 

I love the ease of train travel in Europe. I really wish my country had a similar system.

 

Zoom is one where I want to see the 'controversy' for myself, as it were. I suspect I'll like it a lot more than most, even if it ultimately lacks the kind of depth that characterises a great zoo.
A day in Dusseldorf may well be a great idea; I can shift my nights spent in Duisburg there instead. From what I'm reading evenings in Dusseldorf will be a lot more interesting. It wouldn't even add an extra travel day because I can just add Dusseldorf-Duisburg to Duisburg-Munster!

It will be nice to have a smaller zoo that is very much not an Usti As you can probably tell, I'm trying to plan for burn-out, mostly by avoiding suspect zoos but also with more NZDs. Ultimately the biggest test will simply be the quantity across three weeks. If it's too much then that's a lesson learned, but it will be a disappointing lesson.

I think it won't be within my budget realistically, so I'll just have a very early start in Hanover to get there for 9 when it opens. Do you think Hanover could be done in half a day?

Nice to know there are still sections of Europe left untrod! I think these top 3+1 are well established, it's the add-ons that trouble me.

A majority of days will not feature inter-city travel, so these should be fine. Even when I have an hour train journey to reach the next city, a lot of the time it's just a few minutes on a bus to the zoo from the central station. There will be some tiring days, like Walsrode and possibly Den Bla Planet, but in general I think the public transport situation will be much better than the days when I used to get up at five thirty to get from Cambridge to Colchester in time for nine a.m. !

Thanks very much for your help SM.

 

This is a very useful idea. It would make much more sense for me to visit Krefeld first as I'll be heading to Munster (probably) after Duisburg. I'll put this in the itinerary as an option; I can make all the bookings etc without this effecting it and then decide on the morning itself if I want to make the extra effort. Would other people agree that Duisburg could be done in a long afternoon?

Frankfurt I actually visited last autumn, and I plan to write about that in this thread very shortly. I am leaning towards sneaking Hannover into the itinerary, especially as I will be passing through the city. I put to you the same question I put to Sooty, could it be done in a half day?

Burgers will be visited as part of the Netherlands trip in the future. Gaiazoo potentially also. I'm actually keen on Munster because of the 'all weather' concept. I'm sure it's just a gimmick, but it's still a gimmick I'd like to see for myself. Zoo design and innovation is increasingly interesting to me, as I think it is to most zoonerds.

Exactly the kind of tip I'm looking for. I do have a terrible record with rare canines so I fully expect not to see it anyway!

Thanks very much for your advice

 

I did a little 'work' and came up with a couple of anagrams of 'Like a Rhinestone Cowboy':

"I been cool rhino steak" & "Backstory howlin': neeeio!"

Your move.

Just so. And yet one of my long term travel goals is to do the US coast to coast by rail; in fact I know that Amtrak offer various passes for this kind of thing.

Someone asked me the other day if I would need visas to travel in Europe in the future. I dearly hope negotiations do not go that badly.
As I mentioned above, I already visted Frankfurt last year. Spoiler alert: I did not hate it! Not at all....

 

I would say Krefeld would need about 3 hours and Duisburg you can properly see in 5 hours, partly depending on how long you spend with the river dolphin and whether you want to skip the bottlenose dolphin show....

I would say you could easily see the zoo in about 4-5 hours, it is not terribly big, but you will be spending about 25 extra euros, for a zoo that I find overrated, though there are quite some zoo nerds who like it.

If you actually do fit in Hannover, you could skip Gelsenkirchen and go to Gaiazoo, which is out of the way in a Dutch zoo tour, especially when using public transport. It is also way more enjoyable than Gelsenkirchen I would say. Though both zoos are good weather zoos .

 

I would imagine that Dusseldorf would be a much nicer place in which to spend an evening than Duisburg; I've not been to Duisburg town centre for many years, but I recall a rather tatty, charmless carbuncle that called to mind Crawley (not a Good Thing). Dusseldorf, meanwhile, is really rather jolly (as is Cologne). If you did decide to go to Krefeld, reaching it from Dusseldorf will be very straightforward, and very quick.

Yes. I must admit I really didn't care for the place much, and felt I'd pretty much "done" it after 3 or 4 hours. I'm sure it would be possible to spend longer there, without too much difficulty, however.

When I first visited Dortmund, when I was about your age (!) - many years ago (!!) - I remember getting very lost in the park, trying to make my way from the station to the zoo. Whether this is indicative of my idiocy, or any difficulty in making that journey, I don't know - but I can still remember stumbling around, hot and very bothered (I'd just come on an overnight train form Berlin and was somewhat discombobulated). It is worth it, however: I think Dortmund is a really rather excellent zoo, even if it is not anywhere near as 'showy' as many you will see on this trip.

Yes, those timings sound about right to me. Krefeld is a good place, and if you're aiming to 'do' this region of Germany it would be a real shame to miss it. It's the sort of place we just don't have in the UK - a small zoo, in a small town, which nonetheless has elephants, rhino, tigers, jaguars, gorillas, orangs, chimps, and a host of excellent houses (v nice tropical house, v nice bird house, and which is all done very professionally.

Gaiazoo is excellent, and it is apart from the other Dutch zoos - but if you want to 'do' Germany I'd save it for next time.

Personally, I wouldn't sacrifice Munster. When I first visited it (in 1994) it was a real eye-opener: until then I'd thought that all European zoos must be somehow tremendous, and much better than what I was sued to in the UK. Munster was the first place I saw that really disabused me of this notion (there have been quite a few more places since that have done likewise!). In the quarter century since then, however, I think it has improved inestimably, and is now a really pleasant, mainstream zoo, in which the best has been made of the 1970s architecture. Munster itself is a lovely city - although this is not a wild part of Germany, it must be said!

 

As a result of the discussion so far I'm leaning towards adding a day in Hannover, with the morning spent in the zoo. Despite lintworm's passionate arguments, I don't think I will be dropping another zoo for Kerkrade. It just doesn't feel like the right decision. There is a very real danger that it won't make the cut in a future Netherlands tour, but hey, you really can't visit them all. As far as I can tell it's not as if I'm deciding to skip Cologne.

Pictures will be forthcoming! I assume the Hamburg to Copenhagen train is quite a long one, so I assume they divide it into several sections that sit side by side on the ferry. I've read you remain on the train during loading and then go 'on deck' during the journey itself.

Worth noting that there is cheap accomodation in Plzen itself, but I suspect you have already considered this.

You'll have to remind me again.....
That journey was made considerably more stressful because I didn't realise my middle leg was on a National Express coach, so I had to run into Stansted Airport and book it at the desk there with very little time to spare.

Just out of interest, would you make a case for Bremerhaven to be added?

 

An important question: do German zoos offer reciprocal membership? What are my options here?