While purchasing our tickets, we were greeted by a friendly white cockatoo that just wandered into the lobby and said “Hello”. It was creepy, but cute. I had a nice conversation with him. Upon entering the main room, there was a small gift shop and restaurant, nothing fancy. A large blue macaw greeted us and to my surprise, it was not fake. Looking on, there was a whole jungle of trees and plant life. Some birds flew freely in the artificial forest space, while most of them were in cages next to each other. The floor was covered in bird droppings and I am shocked that I left the building with a clean head.
The first attraction was a warm room with a large bathtub like fish tank. This tank held gara rufa, the type of fish used for a fish pedicure, also known as ‘doctor fish’. The instructions were to dip your hand in the water and the fish would nibble off the dead skin cells on your hand. I was frightened at the idea of dozens of tiny fish nibbling off my hand, but eventually gave it a try and loved the thrill. The next rooms were filled with gorgeous, colorful, and talkative birds. We tried to teach them new words, some Dutch and some English, but the birds were not versatile in their vocabulary.
In the center of the bird jungle was a large pool of humongous and brightly colored carp as well as small turtles that were probably terrified by the size of their pond-mates. The most random little creature that we stumbled upon was a tiny, furry prairie dog in the back corner. He was eating away at hay and running through the man made tunnels, making it difficult to get a good picture of him.
After our bird excursion, we went to a small café’ downtown and waited quite a while to be waited on and served, but the sandwiches we ordered ended up being worth the wait. From there we boarded the train to Vlissingen where we took the ferry to see the view across the Western Scaldis. By this time, the sun was setting and it was simply beautiful.
Our special day ended with dinner at none other than… McDonald’s where I got a hamburger happy meal and Hello Kitty glasses as my not so useful (or fun) toy.
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| Pieter's club sandwich |
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| My chicken, mozzarella, and tomato sub |
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