Taipei, Taiwan
Day 2, 30 March 2008

We walked around quite a lot on the 2nd day in Taipei. Starting by walking around Zhongxiao road, going with the bus just to pass the Taipei Arena. Then he brought me to the streets near Taipei Railway Station since there are many food sellers there. There we tried Stinky Tofu (chou doufu), Oyster Vermicelli and also went to a restaurant to eat Cabbage Sushi and Sashimi plate.

Taipei 101

After that we went to the Taipei 101, the highest building in Taipei. Several levels of the Taipei 101 are used as luxurious shopping mall. The admission ticket for the observatory hall costs NT$400, which is not really cheap. The entrance is located in 5th floor, from there you will go to the 89th floor within 37 seconds using the fastest elevator in the world. In the observatory hall, basically you can see the view of Taipei from every corner. Beside that, you can see the "Baby Damper", the 650 tons huge balancing ball and there is also outdoor viewing platform, which is open only if the weather is fine.

Taipei, Taiwan
Day 1, 29 March 2008

Arrival, Taoyuan International Airport

I arrived in Taoyuan using China Airlines from Frankfurt very early in the morning. Since I just do a transit, I don't want to bring all my luggage out of the immigration. For this there is a so called "bonded baggage" service, which will keep your luggage inside the airport and only can be taken when you fly away from Taoyuan again.

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

After leaving my small suitcase at Billy's house, having breakfast and took a short rest, we went directly to the city. Our first destination is the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. We didn't really spend lot of time there, just saw the memorial hall and took some pictures.

Longshan Temple and Hwahsi Night Market

Next destination is the Longshan Temple. Probably there was a kind of ceremony in the temple on that day, because it was crowded and the people were chanting prayers all the time therefore I didn't dare to take pictures inside.

From there we then walked to the Hwahsi Night Market. There are so many food sellers there. You can see many fresh sea food but also few exotic food such as snake and even small crocodile.

Driving to Vienna and Linz
22 March 2008

Thank's to a friend, I got a voucher for a hotel in St. Agatha, a small town near to Linz. The first plan was only to stay there and only going to Linz for a day trip. But because Vienna is only 200 km away, we decided to drive until Vienna.

Vienna

Linz

Vienna - Wien

Vienna is really a beautiful tourism city with many buildings from the imperial time. The 1 day visit was not enough to see everything. We just managed to see the St. Stephen's cathedral, the Hofburg palace area, the Volksgarten and the Austrian city hall. But we didn't forget to go to Cafe Sacher to taste the famous Sacher cake.

Tagesausflug nach Augsburg
8 March 2008

Augsburg is reachable within 40 minutes using train from Munich. The city is small and nice, however it has several sightseeings, has many signs and therefore is friendly for tourists. We did all sightseeings by walking. We went from the main station to the north, passing the townhall and the cathedral until reaching the Mozart's House (W.A. Mozart's father's house). We didn't enter the Mozart's House, however the cathedral is worth to visit. Then we walk further until the St. Ulrich Basilica, which I guess the southest sights marked on the small map we had. From there we continue to walk to the "Fuggerei", the oldest social housing project in the world. They keep 1 building as a museum, where you can see the old style furnishing of the house. Interesting and worth to visit !!! Well.. it was just a half day trip, but worth to do once only! :-)

Strong beer festival at Paulaner am Nockherberg
1 March 2008

Every year during the fasting time all the beer breweries in Munich celebrate the Starkbier festival. During the short period, they brew the Starkbier (Strong beer), a type of dark beer with more than 7% alcohol. Among them, Paulaner brewery is the most popular with their Starkbier "Salvator". We went to the Paulaner am Nockherberg restaurant on 5. During the festival, there is €1 entrance fee just to enter the beer garden area. The situation is similar like oktoberfest, many people are wearing dirndl or lederhose. 1 Maß beer(1 liter mug) costs € 7,95 and the food price are quite acceptable. I ordered a Steckerlfisch(grilled Mackerel), which cost me € 9. The other food also cost from € 8 - € 13, just like normally. But be careful with the Starkbier. Because of the higher alcohol percentage, many people told me not to drink more than 2 mugs.