Better day today. After breakfast and photo stuff we headed out on the train to the end of the red line - to Tamsui. From there a short bus ride to Fort San Domingo, a fort that's been run by like half a dozen countries, including Australia! Interesting stuff.
Elevated road near our hotel
Fort San Domingo
The nine flags of Fort San Domingo - Spain, The Netherlands, Koxinga Era, Qing Dynasty, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, USA, Taiwan
View of Tamsui River from the fort
One of the cells in the fort
Cells in the fort, added in 1863 when used by the British Consulate
Yard in the fort
Chinese kitchen in the fort, added in 1863 to cook for the constable and prisoners
Stu and the nine flags of the fort
Fort San Domingo
And next door is the former residence for the British Consul, until they left Taiwan in 1972.
Canons outside the Consulate building
Stu and a canon
Fort San Domingo from the consulate building
View of the Tamsui River from the consulate front steps
Drawing room in the consulate
Reading room in the consulate
Stu in a room in the consulate
Kitchen in the consulate
Dining room in the consulate
Front entrance of the consulate
Consulate building
Had a drink and a bit of a picnic lunch at the bottom of the hill and had a look along the foreshore of the river.
Us at the entrance of the fort
Tamsui River
Looking up to the fort from the river
Building by the river
Tamsui River
Then bus and train back into Taipei.
Grand Hotel from the train
Inside a Taipei train
The sweetie hopped off to go back to the hotel, while I stayed on the train until the complete opposite end of the red line - Xiangshan - to go climb Xiangshan - Elephant Mountain. Hoooooboy, what a climb. Around 750 steps (give or take a hundred, I kept losing count at the 50 markers I was doing on my fingers) up and up and up. Some steps quite easy, others quite steep.
Entrance sign to Xiangshan
The view from half way up
The steps just keep on going and going
But the view was totally worth it. Even if you do need to negotiate the crowds of people up there.
View at the top
Taipei 101
Taipei from Xiangshan
Taipei from Xiangshan
I was still very hot when I had someone take my photo
Top of Taipei 101
A lot of tourists on the climb. As I was going down it was a case of pick the language or accent.
The walk was very crowded
Then train back to the hotel to have a shower and chillax.
Sculpture in Xiangshan station
Taipei's stop/go men
Taipei's stop/go men
The Ambience Hotel by day
Then we headed out to go the Shilin Night Markets. We had meat in a box (beef I think - very yummy), meat in a bag (deep fried ribs - nice but fiddly with the bones), meat on a stick (chicken - ok, not great) and meat in a bowl (squid, quite nice). And strawberries on a stick. With toffee. Sooo good :) Other than that just walked up and down the maze of streets and stalls. I did get some earrings, but didn't see much else that I was interested in.
Shilin Night Markets
Cooking meat on a stick at Shilin Night Markets
Toffee strawberries!
Then back to the hotel. The sweetie put on Die Another Day on tv, which kept me up til very late (23:45).