Hanover, Germany--Day 241

Today Elizabeth and I went back to the Hanover Zoo, already knowing of course where and who the hippos were. We found them much in the same state as yesterday--lounging in the water and Habari swimming back and forth. Over and over again. We actually timed it.

One lap= 20 seconds

That meant that she swam approximately 3 laps in one minute, which makes 180 laps per hour and given a say, ten hour swim time in the outside pool (before they are brought in at night) that is 1,800 laps per day. That is a lot of laps! We were getting dizzy just watching her go back and forth. I will give her credit though, she is one dedicated hippo.

We photographed the hippos while we waiting for the noon feeding time, which came and went much like yesterday. We were sure that the keeper would come out again for questions like she did before but no luck. She never showed up which was fine (lucky that we got the hippos names yesterday) and were also able to get a whole series of photos after the crowds dispersed of several of the hippos getting out of the water, walking around, stopping near some ducks (providing the perfect picture of course) and getting back into the water again. Three of the hippos did this much to mine and Elizabeth´s delight.

I think she is quickly becoming a hippo convert.

After getting the photos, we headed out of the zoo stopping again by the guinea pigs on the way out. Did I mention these before? The Hanover Zoo has this amazing set up for guinea pigs--almost like a circus the display where they have a mini-village and roam around it. Impressive. The rest of the day was spent walking around Hanover, our favorite activities together include lots of eating and drinking lattes. Very Euro-chic if you ask me. Is that even a phrase? We then met up with Björn, a sister of Elizabeth´s friend Nina from Berlin. He lives in Hanover and showed us a great night out on the town. We are off to Hamburg tomorrow on a quick stopover to Berlin, where there are of course hippos to be found at the Berlin Zoo.

I have to admit in this update that I have become sort of, well, a little deprived when I do not go to the zoo everyday. A day in Hamburg NOT seeing hippos! Would my day be complete?