{"id":20083,"date":"2019-05-07T14:11:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T14:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=20083"},"modified":"2019-05-07T14:11:58","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T14:11:58","slug":"investigating-the-brickosaurs-at-marwell-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/investigating-the-brickosaurs-at-marwell-zoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigating the Brickosaurs at Marwell Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Brickosaurs
spot the Three-Year-Old collecting “dinosaur food” in the background…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Given that the Three-Year-old has a pretty vivid imagination, it was nice to be able to answer “yes, I think we will” when he asked whether we might see a dinosaur at Marwell…<\/p>\n

Luckily for him, from now until the 1st September there are 36 giant Prehistoric Lego creatures dotted amongst the Zoo’s usual residents (if zoo residents can indeed be “usual”).\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0There will be more Brickosaurs!<\/a> added to the current inhabitants over the Summer, and you can track them all with an app, a traditional map, or just discover them randomly as you explore the Zoo.\u00a0 They are really fun to stumble across…<\/p>\n

\"Brickosaurs<\/p>\n

We spotted our first Brickosaur! from the Marwell Land Train shortly after we arrived.\u00a0 The Three Year Old was in awe of the sheer size of the Dilophosaurus sheltering beneath the trees by the Cheetah Enclosure, and once he had spent time inspecting him and had spotted the Triceratops in the background, he was off like a shot – on a mission to meet the entire dinosaur family…<\/p>\n

\"brickosaurs<\/p>\n

His inner dinosaur (quite a boisterous, and apparently very hungry triceratops) even made an appearance after a while (having spotted the face painting team in the Giraffe Enclosure!)…<\/p>\n

\"Brickosaurs<\/p>\n

In fact his inner dinosaur probably stayed with us a little longer than necessary when I looked in the car mirror the following morning on the way to Pre School and realised he looked more than a little jaundiced (I obviously hadn’t washed his face for long enough!)…<\/p>\n

\"Brickosaurs
Not just Lego Dinosaurs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Given the couple of years we spent in Denmark, Lego has obviously been a big part of the 12-year-old’s life.\u00a0 \u00a0Whilst he would probably claim to be “too old” for anything but the technical variety nowadays, he was really impressed with the sheer scale of some of these Brickosaur! sculptures.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Most of them had taken the teams of very clever (and very patient) people at Bright Bricks up to 6 days to build!<\/p>\n

We loved reading all the little facts along the way, including the fact that it would take one person alone five years to build the entire Brickosaurs! family – over two million bricks were used to build them all!<\/p>\n

\"Brickosaurs<\/p>\n

\"Brickosaurs<\/p>\n

Even if it takes time to hunt some of the smaller sculptures out, you definitely cannot miss the Tyrannosaurus Rex.\u00a0 The largest of the Brickosaur! family, she takes pride of place directly outside the front of Marwell Hall, and at 8 metres in length is the largest touring Lego model ever built.\u00a0 Incidentally, she weighs about the same as one of the Zoo’s white rhinos and is definitely just as rare.<\/p>\n

\"Brickosaurs<\/p>\n

It was interesting to see how much Marwell has changed over the years…<\/p>\n

The new Tropical House (opened last year) in particular, is really special – although try as we might we couldn’t spot the sloth!!\u00a0 \u00a0It was also encouraging to see that Marwell is on track to become carbon neutral by 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Tropical<\/p>\n

It was also a great opportunity to learn more about Marwell as a Global Conservation Charity with active programmes across the World.<\/p>\n

\"Giraffe<\/p>\n

\"Otters<\/p>\n

Obviously, it was also really lovely to see a few of the 140 different species that live full time at Marwell during our visit.\u00a0 \u00a0We chatted to the Giraffes over their lunch and watched as the otters waited for theirs…<\/p>\n

\"Marwell\"
One of Marwell’s original sculptures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sadly, as we visited in the wake of Storm Hannah, we weren’t able to visit the Brickosaur Base Camp, but that didn’t detract from our visit at all.\u00a0 We will just have to go back so we can get stuck into the brick pits, and to meet the new additions to the Brickosaur! family!<\/p>\n

\"Marwell
At the end of a busy dinosaur inspecting day…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

*We were invited to meet the Brickosaurs at Marwell and received free entrance to the Zoo.\u00a0 All words and opinions are my own as always…\u00a0 The Brickosaurs! event is included in the general admission price.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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