Had another big bike trip yesterday (Sunday). A 40km loop starting at Xindian MRT, up to Shizitou Temple, and looping back to Xindian. Once again, I'll simply annotate the photos below as I feel they tell the story better than my writing :)
 |
| We all met at Xindian MRT (Bitan) at 11am. It's a really nicely landscaped riverside promenade close to my apartment |
 |
| We crossed the popular suspension bridge to reach the other side of the river to start our trip |
 |
| Paddle boat rentals are very popular in this area |
 |
| After a rough up-hill climb we were at a crossroad. The street signs told us to turn right! |
 |
| Beautiful countryside as we climbed the mountain |
 |
| I was at the back of the pack for probably the majority of the ride. My excuse is that my bike seat was really low, so I wasn't really getting full strides. Also my back wheel was rubbing against the bike frame for most of the trip. And lastly... I'm out of shape! (probably the biggest reason lol) |
 |
| You can see Taipei 101! We're lucky because to get a day this clear in Taipei isn't all that common |
 |
| Group photo around the water fountain! It was hot out. Probably in the 30's and if it wasn't for the sunblock, I would have definitely burned. |
 |
| While it only took a few pictures to get this far, this is the top of the mountain. It was a GRUELING 8-10km walk/bike up the mountain. I pushed my bike for probably half of it. Some parts the grade of the hill was to steep even for the professionals in our group to bike up. Or maybe they just walked to make everyone else feel better... |
 |
| Taking a much needed rest on the temple stairs. My legs were noodles. |
 |
| Fortunately for us, there was a restaurant located at the top of the hill! It must have been early afternoon by this time and I think most of us were starving and feeling faint from the ride and lack of energy |
 |
| The owner of the shop gave us a few bbq'd sweet potatoes on the house. Yum! This is a very popular treat in Taiwan and apparently also in Peru (according to Johm, the Peruvian) |
 |
| We had a lunch of random greens (choi, heartless green veg, and cabbage), dumplings, and Taiwan Beer. It really hit the spot and ended up costing $4 per person. Great deal! |
 |
| Mitchel (Illinois) is at the very back followed by Steve (Ontario), Ara (Armenia), me, and Johm (Peru). On the back right is Jeremy (Buffalo), Mickie (Netherlands), Debbie (Taiwan), and Maria (Poland/America) |
 |
| Around one more bend and we were at the TOP! It felt great and we stopped to enjoy the view. |
 |
| Okay now you can really see how far/high we biked compared to my apartment. I believe we climbed about 400 meters in elevation over the trip to get to this spot. |
 |
| full screen it! |
 |
| The ride down was pleasant. It was nice not to be walking for a change! It was a good 30-40 minutes of downhill |
 |
| We had found a small little riverside area while searching for a bathroom. Cool little place for a picnic. Too bad we'd just eaten. |
 |
| We were nearly back down on the flats by now. This was the start of a really cool rural area. Scattered houses along the river with people fishing and playing in the water. |
 |
| Some really beautiful natural spots here. It was hard to believe Taipei was just around the corner |
 |
| We realized it was just past 6pm by this time so we had to really motor back so that the bike renters could return their bikes before 7:30pm and also before it got too dark. |
 |
| Shot of walking back across the suspension bridge during dusk. Looks like the paddle boats are more popular once the hot sun stops beating down. |
 |
| Xindian Road Night Market area. Lots of great little restaurants and food carts. Just down at the end of this street is the Green Hornet. |
 |
| It had been a long day and we all deserved some good food! Mexican was on the menu (again!) |
wow really gorgeous photos there, love the last paddle boat one, all those brightly lit lights and colors.
ReplyDelete