A couple of weeks back, I had the opportunity to visit one of the largest zoo and nature park in Sweden at Kolmarden (www.kolmarden.com). Kolmarden is located around 150 kms from Stockholm near a place called Norrkoping. Kolmarden has a small railway station of its own and one can take a train from various places in Sweden to reach this place. There are connecting buses from the bus stop next to the Kolmarden railway station to take you to the Zoo and the travel time is around 10 minutes. There are buses from Norrkoping also directly to the nature park. A trip to Kolmarden is a whole day affair as there are several things to see and do.The major attractions of Kolmarden are the
Dolphin show, the Seal show and Birds of Prey, a show showing the fantastic performances of falcon and few other birds. I never had the opportunity to see a Dolphin show which I was told is usually very good. These beautiful creatures are one of the smartest animals on earth. I had already made the reservations for the entry to the zoo online and have also booked the seats for the dolphin show as I wanted to sit right next to the pool to have a nice view of the performance. We took a direct train to Kolmarden railway station from Vasteras early in the morning and then took the connecting bus from the station to be right there at the entrance of the zoo just before the zoo opening time of 10:00AM. The day being a Saturday, there were several visitors to the zoo. The interesting thing is that the train and bus connections to this place are made in such a way that visitors don't have any problems reaching this place.The staff at the gate handed us the map of the zoo and the schedule for the shows and we took a while to chalk out our plan for the walk inside the park. We did not want to miss any of the shows. A few animals which are habitats of the Scandinavian region, like some foxes and cats were listed on the information sheet, but we were not able to see any of those in their enclosures. We did not miss any of the shows and also took a bus safari inside the park to see lions and wild bears. The shows were all too good and we enjoyed every bit of it. The dolphin show was the best and being seated close to the edge of the pool, I had the nice opportunity to view the animal and its antics from close quarters. After the zoo visit, I went around the city of Norrkoping for a couple of hours. It was nice to see trams running along the streets and also saw a cycle-rickshaw for the first time in Sweden. Instead of me writing anything, it would be better to show some pictures.
Hej da.
