Beekse Bergen and Kasselburg Castle
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The focus of our trip through the Benelux countries was more on the highlights of different cities, but for a change, we also added some nature. In the beginning, we visited the Schiessentümpel waterfall in Luxembourg.
In the further course of our trip, we visited the Safari Park in Beekse Bergen in the Netherlands, and shortly before the end of the journey the bird of prey show at the Kasselburg.
Safari park in Beekse Bergen
The Safari Park is the largest zoo in BeNeLux with well over 1000 animals, mainly from Africa.
First of all, we made a car safari. We joined the queue leading to the start, expecting to be able to buy our tickets there. Nope, the ones in front of us bought their tickets online and are now having the printout scanned. But we, besides some other ignorant people, are allowed to leave our car next to the entrance and walk back to the ticket office.
Back at the car, the ticket is scanned and we are allowed to join the queue. But what comes after doesn't find our grace at all. This has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with safari. Traffic jam in a big city describes it much better. Don't even think about it!
If you feel this is a must-have, then take the safari bus. It can overtake the queue and you can even take pictures from a higher position because unwinding the window in the car is also prohibited.
As planned we park the car halfway and walk back towards the entrance. Better - but excitement somehow doesn't come up. Yes, the enclosures are nice and the animals have a lot of space. But do we really need giraffes in Europe? We like wildlife parks with their animals that are more adapted to the European climate better.
At the chimpanzees, we observe a mother and her child and she is kept quite busy. She reminds us of human mothers in playgrounds. On the one hand proud of what the little ones can do, on the other hand, always alarmed in case something happens.
From the entrance, we take the boat back to the parking lot. That's also okay and saves us a lot of legwork. But there is nothing new to see.
In the end, we go to the lemurs again. That was a really good idea. Now the monkeys don't just open their eyes and close them again, but they romp around and play. We have fun. Finally, we drive with the car out of the safari park and towards Germany.
Bird of prey show at the Kasselburg
On the way from Cologne to Mainz, we make a detour and visit the bird of prey show at the Kasselburg. The flight demonstration starts at 11:00 (but there is also one in the afternoon) and depending on the traffic, it takes at least 1.5 hours to get there.
The traffic is pleasantly smooth and so we're among the first to look for a place. The question is just where to sit best? We choose a place on the side, so nobody can jump in front of our camera. But we will find out that it is difficult to pull the camera along from there. And also the background is rather uneven. The best pictures were finally the portraits of the birds.
The show itself is good and entertaining. The falconer speaks freely and her lecture is both amusing and informative. The animals don't have to perform any nonsense tricks either but simply follow their hunting instinct.
In addition to the bird of prey show, there is also a wolf feeding. We did not expect much from this anyway. We know this mainly from Bad Mergentheim and there the facility doesn't have fences or alike. Here are already too many people at the fence and it is also quite close-meshed. So if you are interested in photos of the wolves, you are strongly advised to buy a special ticket. With this ticket, you can enter the fenced area.
So we just go for a short walk, have a look at the cages of the birds, and find out at the petting zoo that you are never too old for that.
