Trip to Tainan 台南

Mong-Han invited us, Maryline and Kristen to his home town Tainan 台南 for the first weekend in the new year of the ox 牛. We took the high speed train ("gao1 tie3", 高鐵) at 08:06 in the morning and arrived in Tainan after a journey of less than 2 hours, where we were picked up by Mong-Han. Our first destination of our itinerary was an old fort from the times of the Qing Dynasty at An Ping.




We then went to a temple in An Ping devoted to worshipping Mazu 媽祖, the goddess of the Sea, who protects fishermen and sailors.


Traditional oblation to the gods during the Chinese New Year are duck, pork and chicken meat (on the picture in the middle of the table) besides fruits and sweets.


These ladies in red were conducting a procession carrying a statue in front followed by musicians with drums and large cymbals and others pushing various carriages.


An Ping is one of the few places in Taiwan we've seen so far that has a protected old district, with narrow alleys and old, low brick houses.


We found old trees honoured by the local people...


... a funny relief on a house wall...


...and beautiful details like these special flower pots in the narrow lanes of An Ping:


Our last stop led us to the seaside at Huang3 Jin1 Hei3 An4 (黃金海岸 Golden Seaside).


Many kite surfers were cruising the waves.


叔叔 ("shu1 shu1" uncle) Mong-Han with Anna:


Anna got in touch with seawater the first time in her life. See how she liked it ...


Two mermaids watching kite surfers, Poseidon emerging from the Sea, and then posing with the mermaids ...


Fooling around and watching the sunset (看夕陽 , kan4 xi1 yang2) over the Taiwan Strait.


We really enjoyed this trip and especially getting out of Taipei! The sun, the fresh air and our funny friends made this a wonderful day!!!

Sweet Sleep

Anna's sleep is well guarded...

Proud Daddy

Around the Northcoast

As the last days of the stay of Micha's mother and brother Christoph approached, we undertook a journey around the northern tip of Taiwan to show our guests the scenic coast. We drove from Dam Shui to Keelung and finished our trip in Jioufen. Unfortunately, the weather was not too nice, but we were lucky as it did not rain whenever we left the car for our stops.
The first stop was at the Bei Sha Wan Beach (White-Sand-Bay), where we did some photo shooting.

Anna with her godfather Christoph and Micha:

The next stop was at Jeliou, where we ate delicious and really fresh seafood...

(Matthias, don't worry, we did not eat this one!!!)

...and visited the geopark. Here is the family in front of the candle rocks:


We finished our journey in the marvellous tea house in Jioufen drinking Oriental Beauty tea and nibbling tea-flavoured melon seeds:


Anna was very brave and well-behaved during the whole journey, and - exhaused by the fresh sea breeze - she slept more or less all the way through our journey... Lucky parents!!!

Full Moon Party

When a child is born in Taiwan, the tradition demands a Full Moon Celebration (滿月 - mǎn yuè) when the child is one month old. On this occasion, the child is presented to friends and family of the parents and receives his/her Chinese name. The name is chosen in a complicated way by investigating the star constellations, the number of strokes of the characters...
As we think this to be a nice tradition, we also held a Full Month Celebration for our Anna on the 9th of January. We invited our friends and colleagues and served cakes (provided by a local French patissier Mr Bruno) and tea according to the tradition (- for a boy's Full Moon party, sticky rice with chicken legs are served). The mother of one of our friends, Yu-Shiu, even prepared a traditional sesame oil chicken soup with lots of ginger for us!

Anna was cordially received by our friends and was passed from one arm to another, which she obviously enjoyed. (Luckily she is not shy with strangers yet!)

And Anna also got a Chinese name! 安娜 (An Na)

Anna received many gifts. We loved especially the traditional gift of gold jewellery, which was given to us by our Taiwanese friends!


And Anna, all being a girl, soon discovered her precious pieces of jewellery and had to try them on...

First Mountain Peak for Anna

Anna climbed her first mountain peak!!! Well, to be honest, it was just the hill behind where we live, but it is a peak nevertheless! And of course she did not climb it by herself but enjoyed being carried by her grandma! She enjoyed it that much that she slept during the whole walk...

Kamil on the other hand did climb the hill by himself - even in a more advanced speed!
Here they are using the typical Taiwanese hand gesture for picture taking:


Taipei is laying at our feet, only the Taipei 101 Building is still higher than where we are standing:

Daddy's Girl

Daddy is fooling around with little Anna:

Fooling around with daddy is quite exhausting...

Grandmas are the best!!!

The reason why we are still fit and in a good shape is due to the fabulous help of especially one person, to whom we dedicate this posting: Anna's Grandma Dorli (Micha's mother)!


She not only is helping us by holding and soothing our little girl during the day but is also giving us advice with handling our first child, managing the household, doing the shopping (with the help of Grandpa! Thanks to him, too - and he is a wonderful Anna-holder as well!), cleaning the flat, and washing the laundry.
Yet the most appreciated and precious help comes during night times, when she is pacing the flat in endless patience while singing, rocking and soothing Anna, who has not yet completely understood the concept of day and night...


Thanks, Mom!!! You are a wonderful mother and a very special grandma!

New Year 2009 in Taipei