Like many other people, I’m a huge animal lover. When I was younger – and to be completely honest, even now – my dream was to do zoology and work with animals. I have this wild fantasy about getting on a plane to Africa, and working for the
David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for a few years, before going on to Borneo and helping the
Orangutans. Obviously I know this is probably impossible, however I can dream. One day I’ll take a holiday to go see them, just so I can at least get half way to my dream.
Copenhagen Zoo is not for animal lovers
Although I’d love to see all of these animals in their natural environment, I love zoos, not just because I love to just see the animals and spend time watching them in complete awe, but because I find the conservation work many of the zoos do fascinating. Most of the zoos I’ve visited have been very large ones with large enclosures, so to go to Copenhagen Zoo and see the tiny enclosures, upset me quite a bit.
All of the enclosures were TINY
I was really looking forward to seeing the polar bears in their new Arctic Ring area, as well as the Elephants in their new
Elephant House, which was designed by famous architect, Norman Foster. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Copenhagen Zoo is one of the oldest and most famous city zoos, and is therefore very small with not a lot of room.
This presents an immediate problem for the Elephants, especially as Denmark keep being ‘gifted’ Elephants, and they therefore have quite a large group of them…in less than one acre of space. Also I’m not sure why one elephant had chains on its ankles?!
The Elephant House itself is magnificent, it has a huge glass
dome and lots of room indoors for the animals, it also has a really interesting exhibition…although sadly most of this is in Danish only. But the outside space is truly awful. Not only is it incredibly small, but the elephants literally looked caged in with large poles keeping them apart from the public.
The Arctic Circle and Polar Bears
The Arctic Circle was quite impressive…but just so small. Keeping polar bears – animals used to roaming large spaces – in such a small enclosure is just…cruel. Apparently the polar bears love this enclosure as their previous one was much smaller, which just makes me really sad for them.
The only positive was that it was pretty amazing seeing polar bears so close, and they have a tunnel underneath their swimming pool that you can walk through, so it was awesome seeing them swim above you. Scroll down for the photos! I also managed to get a selfie with the polar bear 😉
Copenhagen Zoo was disappointing and upsetting
The whole experience of visiting Copenhagen Zoo just disappointed me and left me a little depressed and upset. I left feeling so down and deflated. If they don’t have the room for all of these animals, then clearly they need to give some of them to a zoo that does have the room, and then concentrate on just a small collection of animals. The bears were also in a very small enclosure… as you can tell, my brother wasn’t too impressed either…
How can they keep a bear in such a small area when they’re used to roaming forests and mountains!? So so cruel. This actually made me cry. He’s basically just stuck on a rock!
I think my favourite part of Copenhagen Zoo was the butterfly house! I loved being so close to them and having them fly around me, one even landed on my arm and sat there a while.
Frederiksberg Gardens
After the zoo we went to Frederiksberg Gardens for a walk past the Frederiksberg
Palace, and we stumbled across a food market for the Copenhagen Food Festival.
I noticed a Døp hotdog stand, and after hearing amazing things about it, we joined the long queue and paid our DKK 26 (a bargain if you ask me). Døp is an organic hotdog stand, that has become quite renown for the quality of their sausages.
I have to say, it was definitely the best hotdog I’ve ever tasted. As well as the sausage in it’s bun, you got gherkins, chopped onions, fried onion skin (zomg so good), mustard, ketchup, and remoulade.
After our busy day visiting
Nyhavn and then Frederiksberg, we ate our hotdogs while waiting for the bus back to the hotel, then when we got back flopped down in the hotel room to spend the evening watching movies.
We were heading to
Sweden the next day, so needed Sunday evening to rest ready for that! …also we wanted to take full advantage of the free movie channel. We got through The Hobbit, Hangover 2, and Mr Popper’s Penguins. After all, holidays are supposed to have a mix of sightseeing, culture immersing, and relaxing!
Catherine Lux
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
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