Barcelona Zoo

Donna Mitchell and her daughter Stacey stayed 2 nights with us a couple of days after we returned to Sitges. Stacey is studying Spanish this semester in Salamanca. Donna flew in from New York and they came up to our area to see Barcelona. We asked what they really wanted to do since they would only have one full day in Barcelona before heading back to Salamanca. They wanted to see the Barcelona Zoo, Santa Maria del Mar and Sagrada Familia. We had never been to the zoo which is located at the end of the city park. What a delightful treat was in store for us!!!
The number of animals on display was amazing! Most of the exhibits were surrounded by moats which allowed us to feel like we could reach out and touch some of them.

We arrived late morning which was also feeding time for a lot of the animals.

We saw lions, tigers, panthers, leopards and bears....

and monkeys, gorillas, vultures, storks and bears.....

penguins, lots of peacocks, hippos, rhinoceros, giraffes, an elephant.....

mountain goats, prairie dogs, dolphins, seals, an entire house full of mini-monkeys, a tortoise,

camels with one hump and camels with two,

an albino peacock, parrots........

and a KOMODO DRAGON!!!!!

The picture of the girl is a reflection, not what they were feeding the dragon! This exhibit was encased in glass as the saliva of the dragon is extremely poisonous!

These two locked horns and it took them over 15 minutes to work themselves loose!

Oh, I almost forgot, there were ostriches and zebras too!

What a great zoo!!!

From the zoo we walked over to the Santa Maria del Mar Basilica, which was closed, and onto the Ramblas. Barcelona was very crowded! Lots of tourists in town for the week leading up to Easter. There wasn't enough time to go inside the Sagrada Familia, but we walked around the exterior and Stacey had a chance to take lots of pictures! Being a Spanish major going for a teaching degree, I'm sure she'll have lots of opportunities to be in Barcelona again as she leads school groups!