Not the scariest vampire ever putting together her torture ideas á la the London Dungeon, but actually a lovely family park full of non-predator type cute animals!

(I was only the tiniest bit disappointed. Much as she completely ‘wigged me out’, I always thought Dru was one of the best vampire villains!)

My wonderful Mum booked up so that I could take my niece to see Santa. As an expat it’s a rarity to be able to do these normal but fun things. Despite the fact that the advertising was slightly misleading and Santa wasn’t there for the whole of the Winter Wonderland extravaganza, we had a fabulous day.

(Also, gives me an excuse to find another one and take her and my both my nephews!!)

There were plenty of animals to see though and that is one of Emily’s favourite things to see so we had a wonderful time!

The highlight however was seeing two of Rudolph’s friends hanging about and waiting for Santa to pick them for this year’s sleigh team. We couldn’t find out which two they were though. All the reindeer are put into a protection programme for the rest of the year so they can live a normal life. I think it was Bitzen and Prancer though.

Going with a child who turned 3 less than a month ago was so much fun if not a little tiring! We were there for about 5hrs in the end (with a short break in the cafe where their chicken nuggets were ridiculously good!!) and every time something new and exciting caught her eye, which was approximately every 3 minutes, then we were off and running to the next bit!

The penguins did capture her attention for a short while though as it was feeding time and they were diving in and out of the water.

She was however just as taken with the statues of them!!

I am sure that I could tell you all sorts of exciting things about all the different animals, but I didn’t get to stop long enough to read the signs!! It is a really nice sized park though. I generally am not a fan of zoos but this one wasn’t too bad. The enclosures were clean and spacious, and the keepers really cared about their charges.

One of the highlights for me was watching my niece interact with the tiny monkeys. She was quite convinced they had come to say hello personally to her and had a lovely chat with them. She makes my heart burst!

There isn’t much else I can think to say to be honest. It was a great day but if you’re thinking of going, just watch the little ones when they get tired because there are a lot of uneven walk ways with cracks and mini pot holes. Poor Bubbie Girl fell over so often that she was limping by the end of the day and had grazed knees through her leggins and tights.

And now, have some animal pictures!