Karlsruhe

Today we went to a German city that was almost an hour away from the village.  It was a little rainy but we didn't let that stop us.  For lunch we had a barbecue.  There was lamb and I was asked if I wanted to try it but I just couldn't do it.

First we went to the zoo.  We saw all sorts of animals.  In one building, we walked through two walkways and we were in a bat cave.  We had bats flying over our head.  They were all freaked out but I thought it was so cool.  Next we saw the elephants and we watched one batting around a hay net for a solid ten minutes.  Did you know that elephants can feel vibrations up to 20 kilometers away?  Talk about cellular service.

We then watched the hippos and there was a baby!  He was born in the middle of June.  He was adorable and we saw a baby monkey and two young giraffes.  When we got to the polar bear exhibit, we didn't see any but I learned something new.  In German, you refer to polar bears as ice bears because they live in ice.

After the zoo, we walked around Karlsruhe.  It is a beautiful city full of old buildings and it houses Germany's Supreme Court. We walked around until we reached the castle.  It was originally built in 1715 however was reduced to rubble during World War II.  They were able to rebuild after the war.  We watched a light show on the castle after dark.  The shows were made by young artists.   The picture above is an eye composed of different colored lines.  It even blinked.

Culture:

Christmas is celebrated on December 24th, not the 25th.

Super cuts is giving bad haircuts in Germany and America.

They have grocery stores in malls.

This was one of the stores at the mall today: