We packed it in on Saturday. A friend from home is teaching English in Taiwan for the year, so we met up with her for some sight-seeing and some delicious, American-style pizza.
We started off at the Dragon Boat Festival. The main event is on Monday, but the competition started on Saturday morning and continues all weekend. We only stayed a short while – I was most interested in seeing some of the beautifully decorated boats.
We then headed to lunch at a restaurant called Alleycats. This is a restaurant we stumbled upon during our last trip to Taiwan. It’s good, American-style pizza…after eating Chinese food for a few days, it’s a welcome reminder of the food from home. We ordered a cheese and pepperoni pizza, and our friend ordered a calzone. (For families traveling to Taiwan, there are several locations in Taipei – we have eaten at the Tien Mu and Hua Shan restaurants.)
June's Pizza of the Month
Then we jumped in a cab and headed to Taipei 101. As we waited in the line for the elevator to the observation floor, staff took our photo in front of a chroma-key (green) wall and super-imposed an image of the building. The photos were available for purchase upstairs on the observation floor.
In front of the 660-tonne damper that keeps the skyscraper balanced (and next to the Taipei 101 damper "mascot"). The engineering of this building is pretty amazing.
After returning downstairs from the observation deck, we enjoyed a Dark Mocha Frappuccino at Starbucks…delicious! I’m wondering if this flavor is available at the Starbucks stores in the United States. For dinner, we headed up to the beautiful Grand Hotel.
The lobby of the Grand Hotel
Looking up at the ceiling in the lobby of the Grand Hotel
That dark chocolate mocha sounds divine! So glad you are getting to see and do so much! Sounds like you had a wonderful day. We are praying for you guys and can’t wait to see Matthew in your arms!
I’m glad you two are able to get some rare couple time. Between your last trip’s blog entries and this time’s, I’m thinking you have a career ahead of you as a travel writer.
WOW! The pictures are gorgeous! Can’t wait to see him!