The flight from Istanbul, Turkey to Guayaquil, Ecuador is a lot longer than we prefer to stay on an airplane.  We therefore decided to break up the long flight home with a night in Amsterdam on the way back.  We weren’t expecting very much, other than a chance to stretch our legs and grab some dinner.

We checked Tripadvisor for things to do in Amsterdam, and the local Artis Royal Zoo ranked quite high, so we decided to spend our last afternoon there.  To our surprise, it was one of the most enjoyable zoos we’ve been to in the world, with lots of shade trees and play areas for kids.  It was built in 1838 and one of the oldest zoos in the world, so there were a medley of neo-classical and new buildings, and well-maintained classical gardens lined with statues. There was some major reconstruction to build a new elephant environment, but the rest of the zoo was intact, with some enclosures that were surrounded by moats without fences, allowing some unobstructed photographic opportunities. In other displays, you could get quite close to photograph the iguanas and other animals inside the pavilions.

There were some animals we had never seen before in a zoo setting, including African wild dogs, some large Komodo dragons and South African penguins. The anteater (middle left) appeared to be wearing some kind of animal fur coat, until we finally realized those were young ones on the back of the mother.

After dinner, we wandered the canal zone.  The wind was very calm this time (unlike our last visit 3 months ago), providing colorful reflections in the water for sunset.  All in all, this stop made for a great last night for our vacation.