Bear in the Woods

Today we are off on another adventure - but this time out of the hot city - and into the green forest of Grunewald (one the western edge of Berlin). Grunewald means... Green Forest... which it is!

But first, we had to catch an S-Bahn... and it was the first one leaving - so Sandy was all by himself for a bit.

 Aren't those very colourful seats?? Sandy does not blend into them very well.

 And then he thought he would run up and down the aisle for a bit... until that made him too hot... which meant that when we got out of the S-Bahn, we needed to stop... for some ice cream!!

Not Ben & Jerry's ice cream (or even Jerry and Ben's)... but home-made ice cream!

 Their special was a strawberry bowl with 3 scoops of ice cream, fresh strawberries and whipped cream. That seemed a bit much for a little bear though.

 Sandy wanted honey ice cream - but they don't make that over here (or anywhere for that matter!)...

 So he settled on Mocha and Hazelnut... yummm!!! A perfect size for a little bear. After that, we went on a beary long bus ride through the Grunewald and came out at Pfaueninsel... which was our ultimate destination.

 There was a short ferry ride (like 2 minutes)... and only a few people on the ferry (and only 1 bear... that could be seen!).

 There was lots of boat traffic... and Sandy was a bit concerned that the life jackets wouldn't fit him if he fell in the water - but Mama said that his puffy coat was better than a life jacket (for a while at least!).

 After getting off the ferry, Sandy scouted out the island and the map and headed straight up the hill (he is a little bear who loves hiking after all).

 There were some beary large oak trees up there and Sandy climbed up one to get a good view and off in the distance he saw something very different.

 Can you see it? Just above his head on the grass? No? Me neither... but a close-up zoom reveals...

 A peacock!!! Pfaueninsel means Peacock Island - and they run loose over there! Sandy was very excited to have seen a peacock, even at a distance.

 Nearby was a rose garden, which looked a bit dry and very un-rosy... but there were a few left.

 This one is still blooming and smelled beary nice.

 Then, off in the distance, Sandy saw it... the much sought after destination... a ruined palace!! Yay!!! This would be Sandy's first official ruin... He was beary excited but did manage to stop along the way.

 And take photos of some blue hydrangeas (because Hammie likes them)...

 And then Sandy marched off in search of the ruin.

 But got momentarily distracted by the sprinkler which was making pretty rainbow colours and which looked beary tempting for a hot little bear... water... cool water!!! But he managed to stay on the path and arrived at the ruin in a high state of excitement.

 Only to be disappointed dramatically!! This ruin is a fake ruin!!! You can see that the "stonework lines" are just painted on! The outside is made up of painted oak planks. Apparently princes and kings back in the late 1800s liked to build fake ruins on their grounds to and properties to serve as summer homes... or just to make other princes envious that they didn't have such cool ruins. Very disappointed little bear!

 Sandy went off to pout for a bit in a big throne like chair (also made out of wood)...

 But then heard a weird cat-crow sound (best way to describe it) and looking around he saw... some peacocks... who were beary close!! They were the ones making the beary weird noise!

 This one does have a head... it's just preening feathers under it's wing.

 Aren't they pretty? That is a beary fetching shade of blue.

 And one even held still long enough that Mama could take an unblurry shot of it! Very pretty...

One of them even shed a feather... but not one of the pretty blue ones... one of the brown ones. Still... it was a peacock feather! But Sandy left it there (after getting a pic taken) because it is a nature-park... What a great day! Sandy almost forgot that he was so hot!