ABC Wednesday: F is for a Fine Day; Sky Watch Friday; Weekend Reflection; Today's Flower

Some of you may notice that I have posted another "F" for ABC Wednesday, but Grace thinks that one is too sad and heavy, so I post a happier one here. Sunday, February 14 was Valentine's day but it is also the first day of Chinese New Year. This year, it is the year of tiger. Both China and Taiwan has 9-day holiday. But the weather in Taipei was cloudy, rainy and cold (15℃). After two days holed up in Taipei, Grace and I decided to take the High Speed Train to Kaohsiung, the Southern port city of Taiwan. It is 250 km from Taipei and the train ride was about 1 1/2 hour. We left early in the morning of Tuesday, February 16.

The cold front had moved south with us, the weather in Kaohsiung was also not ideal. The first place we visited is an old temple by a lake. There are two towers on the lake and connected to the temple by a zig-zag bridge. The special things of the towers are the tiger and dragon in front of it.

We walk in through the mouth of the dragon of the first tower and come out from the second tower through the mouth of tiger. Since both Grace and I are dragons in Chinese zodiac, and this is The Year of Tiger, it was fitting that we visited this temple and hope it will bring us luck this year.

We then had a fabulous lunch in a Spanish restaurant. The chef is a real Spaniard. It is located by the River of Love of Kaohsiung. Both the food and decor are very authentic.

After lunch, we went to visit the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Art. The museum is in a new development district of the city. The modern architecture is located in a very large park. A lot of kids were in line to view the exhibition of "PIXAR 20 Years of Animation", which we skipped.

No camera was allowed in the museum, so we show here the beautiful lotus and water lily in the pond of the park.

It was a long day already, we had a three-hour rest in a Motel. Taiwan's motel has nothing to do with the motel by the highway in the US. Each motel room is like a film set, often with swimming pool in the private garden. After we have fully rested, we visited again the "Dome of Light" at the main station of Kaoshiung Rapid Transit. It was created by Italian Maestro Narcissus Quagliata. We have visited it last year with Grace's father.

Here you can see Grace was photographing the Dome. There were musicians playing under the Dome, the acoustic was fantastic.

It was late when we finished photographing the Dome. We went to the famous night market by the station to have some dinner/snack. There were so many people that we were totally squeezed. But the food was delicious and it was time for us to catch the train to go back to Taipei. Although the weather was not too cooperating, overall it was a fine day out.

To see more entries of ABC Wednesday click here.

To see mor skys from around the world click here.

To see more flowers from around the world click here.

To see more entries of Weekend Reflections click here.