Amsterdam is one of my favourite cities, I’ve been several times and was happy to go back even just for an afternoon on my way home from Madrid last year. I had a 9-hour layover in Amsterdam which was a perfect amount of time – the plane landed timely and I was off super quick (because within Schengen zone, no passport control needed) and on a train into the city in no time. En route I bought my ticket for ARTIS, and then had plenty of time for a leisurely stroll through the city to get there. After visiting the zoo I then strolled back along the canals in the beautiful Summer weather to head back to the airport. A perfect way to spend an afternoon!
Continue Reading “Amsterdam strolls, June 2023”Amsterdam strolls, June 2023
Madrid strolls, June 2023
When planning my trip to see the giant pandas at Madrid Zoo I knew I wanted to have 2 full days in the city – this was a bit of an insurance policy incase I didn’t get to see the pandas on the first day for some reason, but I was lucky and my day at the zoo worked out perfectly. So I had the evening after arriving from a long day of travel, the morning and evening after visiting the zoo because of the later opening time, and then another whole day to fill – luckily there is plenty to see in Madrid!
Continue Reading “Madrid strolls, June 2023”Brussels strolls, October 2022
A small pause on pandas/my May 2024 trip to China while I post some European city break content!
Despite having been to Belgium a few times before, I have never done anything in Brussels apart from fly into/out of the airport. So when I rebooked my Pairi Daiza trip for October 2022 I added in some time for experiencing Brussels! On this trip I travelled with my mum, so made sure to drag her around the whole city!
Continue Reading “Brussels strolls, October 2022”Chao Tian Jiao and Dun Dun @ Dujiangyan Panda Base, May 2024 (Shuangnan Garden pt.2)
The 3rd and final yard in the Shuangnan Garden, and the last to share from my visit to the Dujiangyan Panda Base – this yard is home to Chao Tian Jiao 巢天骄 (m) and Dun Dun 顿顿 (f)! These two aren’t twins, but were born just a few days apart in 2020 at the Wolong Shenshuping Base making them almost 4 years old.
Chao Tian Jiao is sponsored by Nestle, China and his mother is Xi Dou 喜豆. There isn’t very much information about him online, however there are many sweet videos of him from throughout his life from cub to now – this pair, and also when they were with Xi Dou, are one of the features on the iPanda livecams so always an opportunity to see them. Dun Dun is also known as Dou Ban 豆伴 and she is Bao Bao‘s daughter. Bao Bao was born at the Smithsonian National Zoo, Washington DC back in 2013 and I saw her here in the Dujiangyan Panda Base in 2017, and now I’m seeing her daughter here – very special. She was raised with Chao Tian Jiao with his mother as a surrogate, so they are a pair very familiar with each other. Again, she is the feature of many online videos. I think these two both have quite distinctive looks to be able to tell them apart – in the picture below Chao Tian Jiao is the one facing the camera/front of the yard, he has particularly fluffy cheeks and fluffy ears^
