Norway Day 11: Atlanterhavsparken Aquarium

 After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we headed to the Atlanterhavsparken Aquarium. Actually, U first left to charge the car and the rest of us walked to join him.

First up at the aquarium were the otters on Otter Island. There were four of them and they were quite active when we arrived. Here are some pictures of their cuteness.

Otter Island is completely natural, as it was before the aquarium was built, with the exception of the lighthouse.

This one was curious about Matthew's shoe.

The keeper came to feed them and told us about each of the otters who are all between 1.5-2 years old. They have two girls and two boys. One of the girls is named Sarah. She was found in the area and is adventurous and whimsical. She is also picky--she did not like some of the fish she was given so would drop it and go get more fish. Otters have thick hair: 70,000-100,000 hair strands per square cm!

Enjoying some fish.

Next up were the penguins. It was fun to watch them swim around in the water.

Feeding time! A few penguins did not come over which we thought was odd. However, we later learned that it was because they were staying by the nesting boxes that had babies in them. Most of the animals in the aquarium are native to the area. The penguins, however, are from Chile.

Cool outside crab fountain

Watching the rays swim around their tank

Me with a curly octupus

Matthew and Megan at an interactive station

 A diver got in the huge Atlantic Tank to feed the fish.

It was cool to see the fish swarming around him, especially some of the big fish like halibut that tend to hang out on the bottom of the tank.

Hungry fish!

Me touching a sea star.

Megan and Matthew feeding the crabs.

Closer up shot of one crab.

We enjoyed watching the 10 seals get fed. One of them jumped quite high.

Megan's take on the seals: The way they moved on land was interesting. And they can move really fast in water.

Me testing out her reflexes. She did not do as well as the others.

Me, Megan and Matthew enjoying carrot cake.

U with our Norway car. It was a nice car even if it did have its idiosyncrasies (like braking on its own). 

Croissant sandwiches and croissants for dinner.

Yummy ice cream!
Me had seabuckthorn/strawberry which was an interesting combo.

U Step Count: 10.5k