A trip to Emmen

Today we made a trip to Emmen as we were going to visit someone for her birthday (we were a bit late as the birthday was awhile ago).
While we were in Emmen anyway we decided to also pay a visit to the Zoo that is in Emmen.

When we got to the zoo we noticed a chinese looking gateway at the entrance and wondered why it was there.

In front of the gate was this wooden creature who was tunneling his way into the ground. With cool things like this I couldn't wait to get inside the zoo. We still had about two and a half hour till closing time so enough time to see all the animals I wanted to see.

But then our plans got foiled!!!
It turned out that there was some kind of Chinese lantern festival at the zoo and because of the festival the zoo closed one and a half hour earlier then normal! So that meant we only would have one hour before closing time. We didn't feel like rushing so finally we decided not to go to the zoo today, but try again on a day when we'd have more time to look at all the animals there.

So we planned on making a nice walk instead. We started out on the square close to the zoo where I spotted this beautiful statue.



We made a short trip through Emmen and then we came to the woods at the edge of town. it was a bit muddy because it had been raining, but just look at all the beautiful autumn leaves!







And look what we found in the forest: a Hunebed!

There were lots of leaves on the Hunebed.

And even a small pool in which I could see myself!

When we walked on we also encountered some sort of monument. I think it was for the people who worked on retaining this forest or something like that.

Mushrooms!

No autumn walk is complete without finding mushrooms.

I just love trees!

Back at the house of the birthdaygirl we were treated to a delicious meal and a nice glass of rosé.

This beautiful painting, which was hanging in the house were the birthday was, is a replica of the original painting by Vermeer and was painted by my owner's OH. I had to take a picture of it ofcourse.

In the evening we took a bus back to Groningen.
We might not have been able to visit the zoo, but we had a great day!