Cycle Taiwan Day 20 - Another Day in Taipei for site seeing & shopping

Good morning Taipei, let's start the day with a breakfast at Ximen Noodle House 西門麵店, we chose to sit outside the shop where we can keep an eye on our bikes. Located at Neijiang Street GPS : 25.041699, 121.505717 and very near to where Mei Kuan Yuan Hotel.

The foods in a show case that was enough to entice us to try them.

This is heavenly yummy and sinful braised pork, intestine and eggs.

Having fun for a selfie at Ximen Station after a good breakfast.

It was a Thursday morning in Ximen where we headed to it MRT Station to start our exploration in the city.

Hello the sign shows only two bicycles at a time and here you are 6 persons with 6 folded bikes at one go.

From Shilin MRT Station at  GPS : 25.101756, 121.548816 we rode to 國立故宮博物院 National Palace Museum which was about 3km away. At a ramp to the upper level of the buiding.

We spent a few hours in the museum, the home to the world's largest and finest collection of Chinese art, such as painting, calligraphy, statuary, bronzes, lacquerware, ceramics, jade and religious objects. Our bicycles were allowed to be kept in the luggage section and must be bagged. 

What a small world we bumped into Alan and Aroha again when we were about to leave the palace. When will be the next time we meet again. (Incidentally we met them again in Kuala Lumpur in 2019).

It was then back to Shilin MRT Station where we took our lunch here at 小南鄭記碗粿,  for an interesting sticky fish ball soup together with rice.

The next spot was Tamsui 淡水, a place where people said must go whenever you are in Taipei. It's an old fashioned town with very rich history of Japanese, Southern Fujian, the native Taiwanese and also very interesting architectural attraction.

Armed with our bikes we explored the riverside of Tamsui to see the array of restaurants, cafés, shops, hawker stalls, street performers, traditional cultural performances and the gateway to Taiwan's scenic North Coast.

The shopping has began at the last city we were visiting.

We bumped into the two brommies from Hong Kong where we met at Taoroko at Tamsui.

The old street of Tamsui 淡水老街 is vibrant with so many visitors, old shops. eatery outlets and interesting art works like this one on the wall.

This kid with a placard promoting egg sponge cake where the shop is just right opposite the road and it was our meeting point to return from ones' shopping.

We saw a crowd at a bakery shop selling the popular traditional Taiwanese egg sponge cake made from flour, egg, milk and sugar. It was so soft and yummy.

Half of us proceeded checking Tamsui out while the other half chosen to take a break for a beer and seafood by the riverside when the sun was about to set.

At the same restaurant we re-grouped and continued with our happy hour and dinner. The place is called 淡水北墾丁啤酒屋 at Huanhe Road  GPS : 25.170923, 121.437726 very near to the passenger wharf. Photo credit : Anne Cheong.

The wife does most of the shopping while the husband does the purchase handling. Photo credit : Ahpek Biker.

Don't leave Tamsui empty handed or not you are not allowed to board the train back. Good night Tamsui.