Today we visited the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan. Originally built as a palace, it now houses a large art museum consisting mostly of porcelain dishes and accessories, bronze sculptures, jade, weapons, and calligraphy. Perhaps not surprisingly, the thing that most captured our kids was a virtual archery game. I guess video games are cooler than thousand-year-old artifacts.
We took a very crowded bus towards home but jumped out in a busy area that seemed worth exploring and found a burger restaurant. Ashton and I ordered items that had a ghost pepper chili on them…and our mouths burned for over an hour. It was one of the spiciest things I have ever eaten (and we both LOVE extreme spice). Sadie and Jessie had much more sane meals!
Eventually, we made it home to the AirBnb and rested for a bit before heading out to the Shilin Night Market. While there, the kids got bubble tea, some grilled street food, skewered sugar-glazed fruit, and a “flower cake” that looked prettier than it tasted. Overall, it was a great day…with much less walking than our extreme hike the day before (although all of our calves were sore today). We have nothing yet planned for tomorrow. I am hoping we end up with a pretty chill day of playing in the park and lazing around…but we’ll see what happens!