early morning hike (53/365b)

twas a day off from school, and we thought we would take a nice walk early in the morning, but we left a little before eleven.

a very happy nina took us to the bus station after bringing croissants for breakfast. henry packed our lunch. i almost (i had to run back) forgot my camera.

almost big enough to ride nina's bike

felix measuring himself on the tram

we weren't traveling very far to hike, only a few tram stops away, but because of construction and because it is a holiday, the trams don't go properly, and we had to get in and out of buses substituting for trams. when we arrived we waited a few minutes for manuela and watched the koi fish hanging around hilmteich. the water was very dirty, and the fish were very big and looked very sad.

that is not lens haze!

we stopped and looked at animals at the animal shelter, where they treat wild animals, some get released back into the wild, and some, non-native species like raccoons, and golden pheasants, stay there for the duration. one of the volunteers gave us a very extensive tour. we liked watching the fisher otter, and the martens, which i wrongly translated to "weasels" because i didn't know there was a species of animals called a marten.

after that we had a snack lunch, and just as we were leaving, we saw someone from the animal shelter passing us very fast with a jogger along side her. the jogger had found a wounded owl, and we got to see up close how they picked the owl up, checked it for insects and carried it off. poor thing.

all of us hikers (brian had to work today, it's not a holiday in london)

we ended the hike at the playground, where the kids got increadibly muddy. so muddy that felix went home dressed only in a tshirt that he was wearing like a dress. we found about 1000 mushrooms on the way. with all this rain, it sure is good for fungi.

probably a choice edible, but i didn't look it up till we were at home, too bad.

we came back by the long walking way and everyone was very hungry when we got back. big fast stirfry to the rescue, and then a very early bedtime.