The weather today was probably the worst weather I have seen during my time in Europe. Throughout the day it was around 65 degrees Fahrenheit with a cloudy sky and light rain.
But the weather didn’t stop me. Since I basically saw all the major landmarks yesterday, I spent the day seeing a few landmarks that weren’t on the tour.
My first stop of the day was the Berlin Zoo. For months I have been hearing and reading about Knut, the new star of the zoo. Knut is a polar bear that was born in captivity at the zoo on December 5, 2006, and later rejected by his mother. He became known world-wide when a couple animal activists called for the zoo to let the bear die rather than raise it as a domestic pet.
The zoo didn’t let that happen. Instead they used some well-played PR to introduce Knut to the world. It was hard to convince the public that the bear must die when there is footage on all the news channels of him running around being cute.
Knut was basically the only thing that interested me at the zoo. I had heard so much about this bear that I wanted to see him for myself while I was in the area.
The weather was still crappy when I left the zoo so I headed down to Unter den Linden, Berlin’s “Main Street,” to do some shopping.
Several credit card swipes later, I was headed back to the hostel with all my gift shopping for friends and family successfully completed.
I will probably go to bed early since I am setting my alarm for 5 a.m. tomorrow. My flight doesn’t leave until 10 a.m., but I’m not exactly sure how to get there so I don’t want to chance it.