An amazing zoo & garden!

Last week Autumn and I ventured out to the middle of no where to check out a zoo/botanical garden, Pairi Daiza.  It was only an hour train ride outside of Brussels and promised to be a chance to be up and close with the animals while surrounded with a beautiful backdrop on the site of an old Abbey grounds.  And it was awesome!!  Seriously I wish I would have found this place a year ago as I would have never even gone to the other two zoos we've seen.  I would have definitely bought a season pass and made this our go to place if I knew about it back then...oh well...at least we found it now.

It was just the two of us so we took our time wandering around and exploring every inch of the place.  I was absolutely amazed at how close you were to some of the animals...this would never fly in the US!  Of course the cheetah, elephants, etc. were kept in cages, but anything that was "safe enough" you could get up close and personal with :o)  Sometimes a little too close we learned as we tried to figure out how to get the parrot OFF our stroller...or as we quickly backed away as the little monkeys started inching closer and closer.

 Just before he started eating her coat...guess we should have brought lunch :o)

 I didn't get a great shot of these monkeys, 

but they were just hanging out on the walkway!

This lovely parrot grazed my head before landing right on the stroller.

He gave Autumn a little love peck on the finger too...thank goodness it didn't hurt.

 I was pretty sure these guys were about to pounce so we high-tailed it out of the way

In the cage WITH the kangaroos...are we sure this is a good idea?

We kept our distance...just to be safe.

My favorite part was definitely the giraffes...you got to go up on a platform so you were face to face with them and could pet them.  They are surprisingly corse...I don't know why, but I thought they'd be softer :o)

 Here he is nuzzling my shoulder...Autumn was not taking her eyes off him!

We found a HUGE playground too and had to take some time to play!  

Here's Autumn holding on for dear life as I spin her around.

Oooh...a peacock...a little inspiration for Halloween :o)

Such an awesome place and one we will definitely be going back to if we're around next spring. And another great Wild About Wednesday...I'm so glad I started this a few months ago...the places we've been and seen now are just so great and will be memories we'll cherish forever!

Click here to view the full Pairi Daiza album.