Zoo

There's something so soothing and rewarding about going to the Zoo.  This wasn't the one in Prague, but in Dvůr Králové:

There were other serene and/or entertaining animals, such as a baby orangutan, which was particularly sweet, and some amazing monsters, namely a vulture and a pelican chick which had grown to huge proportions in the space of just a couple of months.  And of course, some suitably scary pythons of epic width, a few lethal-looking big cats, and some rather odd but colourful birds who took to watching us, as if annoyed that we spent too much time watching the baby orangutan.  Not all of us can be cute, let's face it, so I understand the birds' outrage and determination to catch our attention by making strange noises instead.

But the ,,miminko" [word for "baby" in Czech, not her name] orangutan was being so captivating, with her mad scientist-type hairstyle and her fascination with the end of a round, metal bolt, that looked for all the world like a nipple to her, but somehow wasn't providing anything like the usual reward for sucking on it.  She had us entranced.  Unfortunately, this was the best photo I could get of her:

And then we came home and watched ring-tailed lemurs and tiny, slow-moving leaf-litter chameleons on the 'Madagascar' series DVD, narrated of course, by the consistently blue-shirted and disarmingly down-to-earth but expert David Attenborough.