Monday 25, November 2024

What an excellent last ride in Taiwan. The weather was good, sunny but not too hot and hardly any humidity. No tail wind, but you can’t have everything.

We left the hotel at just after 9:00, the streets were fairly quiet, and we headed towards the river. If you read Thursday’s blog you know the nightmare we had trying to find our hotel from the river, it looked as though history was going to repeat itself. We knew the river was behind a large wall that we were cycling along. We couldn’t find a way to get on the trail. Until Ralf spotted an elevator that took us up to an overpass, over the road and the wall that protected Taipei from the river. We took the elevator and low and behold we were on the Taipei River front cycle paths.

We were only a few kilometres out of our way, but we were now going in the right direction. We spent 25 kms on a wonderful off-road cycle path. We could barely see any traffic, let alone hear it. It was wonderful.

We had to watch out for dragons.

As we got closer to Taoyuan we were along side a road but well separated from the traffic

As we neared Taoyuan I thought we were going to be on the scooter lane/hard shoulder of Highway 2 for the remaining 25 kms to the hotel near the airport. Google did us proud, we headed through the small city of Yingge and onto an old rail trail. This was a narrow-gauge train track that carried coal to the coast. We were on this lovely rail trail for about 15 kms, out-skirting Taoyuan.

Of course, we eventually had to get on a highway for a brief period. The scooter/cycle path was separated by a solid concrete barrier. Although there was the occasional delivery truck that had to use this road as well.

Then we made our right turn towards our hotel 2.5 kms to go.  Construction and lots of it and diversions, which we could not follow, because the signs were not in English. They are building a new raised rail system from the airport. The way we wanted to go was blocked off by construction vehicles and major infrastructure works. By the time they finish this, I am sure they will put in a bike-path underneath the rail system. It seems to go hand in hand. Build better transit and build for scooters/bicycles.

We had to cycle another 4.5 kms to find the right road to connect to our hotel.

We arrived at 2:30. Ralf went to check-in and asked where we could clean the bikes. Around the back, we cleaned the bikes and discovered a mountain of cardboard boxes. We must add cardboard to our bags for added protection for the bikes.

After cleaning the bikes, I suggested to Ralf that we pack them. We checked out our room first and discovered we would not be able to fit our bikes in the elevator. We went back to our bikes and packed them ready for the flight. It only took us an hour to have both bikes folded and in their bags. Ralf got some boxes and we put them in the bags, surrounding the bikes.

We left the bikes/bags in the lobby and arranged a taxi for tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed we will get a big taxi.

Dinner was at the hotel, buffet style. The food was very good. Tomorrow breakfast is included and we will be on our way home.

A great way to end our tour of Taiwan.

Two more posts – our flight home and Thoughts on Taiwan.