But I suppose you might learn something here too.
N is for the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Not to be confused with the National Museum in Beijing although they do share the same roots. I likely would not have confused the two since I'd never heard of either one, but you might know more China history than I do.
The National Palace Museum is an art museum in Taipei and is the National Museum of the Republic of China, aka Taiwan. Wanna know something? I didn't know Taiwan was aka The Republic of China. Not to be confused with The People's Republic of China aka Mainland China.
I am really the last person who should be attempting to explain centuries of Chinese history to the masses. I think I'll just stick to my pretty pictures.
But first of course I must back up because I always need to fill in the non-essential details. Its what keeps you coming back here. ahem.
Hubs was in town on a work trip. A co-worker, who shall henceforth be called S, was also on this same work trip. Her hubs (E) tagged along like I did and joined us for the Taiwan-Hong Kong leg of our jaunt across Asia. Technically we did more than tag along.
We vacationed while they worked.
Anyway, S & E told me yesterday that they're reading my trip recap (Hi!) and gave the okay to mention them here. Do you post pics of people you know in your blog without giving them a heads up? Just curious.
Since hubs and S were working most of the time, E and I got to have all the fun exploring the city together. We were quite the pair on that cable car ride which I'll talk about in an upcoming post, but first the National Palace Museum. Remember that? I think I mentioned it four paragraphs ago.
Since we arrived in Taipei on the weekend we had a day where all four of us could do some sightseeing together. We decided to trek out to the Palace, but first we had to figure out which bus to ride.
Do we look confused?
Apparently so.
This charming boy spoke some English and directed us to the correct stop. We didn't even ask...he somehow just pegged us as tourists.
Here we are having fun on the bus. This was before we discovered E's camera had been 'lifted' from his pocket somewhere between Point A and Point B. He took a picture on the bus so don't go thinking it was that sweet boy pictured above. It definitely wasn't him. The bus was crowded and hey some things just need to be chalked up to the perils of foreign travel. A missing camera might have ruined my entire trip day but E carried on with nary a complaint. The gorgeous weather and beautiful scenery definitely helped.
Just some ladies gettin' their Tai Chi on.
Note to self-learn Tai Chi.
The Palace is full of beautiful art and pottery and the surrounding gardens are none too shabby either.
Another zig zag bridge and some serious koi in the ponds here.
Hungry too-
We meandered thru the gardens and then found our own way back on the bus.
And then we hit the markets.
Because that's how we roll.
Of course I'm going to tell you about it.
Later.
We've still got half the alphabet to go remember!
