On Thursday I went to the National Palace Museum, where they rotate the national treasures.
That way you can go and see new things every time you visit. Right. Good for me though, because I dind't go on overload like at the Louvre. The current special exhibition, because the museum is 100 years old or something, is the 100 most significant items that they have, and I restrained myself because Opa Henk and I were going to go together on Friday. So I mostly concentrated on the animals and people in bronze, ceramic etc. I love the ancient "vessels" that look like cows and birds with very fat bodies... On Friday we made sure we were early so we could catch the guided tour in English, which was great - learned things about the ancient Chinese culture from which the artifacts came, that makes it so much more interesting. The most amazing things were (imho) the miniature carvings. There's one from an olive seed that's carved into a little boat with roof, doors that open, and people inside. At most 1 1/2" long. They put a magnifying glass in front of it so you can actually see it... 
Another interesting item, especially in view of the beds and pillows they sleep on here: a hundreds of years old ceramic pillow in the shape of a very cute sleeping baby. You put your head on the baby's gently curved, baked and glazed ceramic back. So I wasn't too far of with comparing the hotel's pillow to a rock... In the late afternoon we went to see Taipei 101 with an old friend of Opa and his wife. This is one of the tallest buildings in the world at the moment (2nd tallest, we think?), 101 floors with an observatory on top. We were going to go up, but they said, no view, it's in the rain clouds up there. Pity.
Some typhoon or other passing by at some distance gave a very rainy forecast for the weekend, so we didn't go for a weekend tour of the rugged and beautiful east coast. So I'll never know how rugged and beautiful, I guess. We went to Sun Moon Lake instead, which is a large-ish lake in the center of Taiwan, up in the mountains. The rain didn't catch up with us until 2 PM on Sunday so we had plenty of time to enjoy. We took the high speed train and the regional bus to get there because they wouldn't let Opa rent a car without a Taiwanese or international license, and he has neither. We stayed overnight, arranged for by the admin at the Teradyne office, in the "Teachers Hostel" - and we were curious about the hostel part... Well, not sure why there is an "s" in hostel. Two large buildings, and we were in the new wing. As well as the usual amenities, our room had a balcony with lovely view of the lake, all this for a mere NT$4000 plus. (divide by 30, but it sounds more fun in taiwan dollars). The hotel restaurant was maybe more hostel than hotel though. One of those typical chinese family-style affairs, with large round tables for at least 8, with the round turning sections in the middle, large menu in chinese with minimal english translations. We did OK with ordering our dinner though. Breakfast was buffet style, so we could pick what we wanted: let me think, will I scoop up some of that, eh, porridge? from one of the two vats? Or start with sticky rice and pile vegetables on top and, eh, what is that, some form of protein? I chickened out (hehe, pun not intended) and toasted a piece of very square and very white bread and found margarine and jam and boiled eggs. Opa was a little more adventurous - it was his turn, in the museum he had a sandwich for lunch while I had sobe noodle salad. Delicious. So he had some of the unknowns with boiled egg. He said it tasted fine.
The lake and the mountains were beautiful and mysterious with the misty clouds on Saturday and even in the intermittent rain of Sunday morning. We took the bus around the lake on Saturday, and got off for a walk through the butterfly garden, the old village street market, and the large temple. We bought a baggie on the market with cut-up fruit that we didn't recognize for snack, it was delicious, it may have been a guava, there was something vaguely familiar about the taste, although it was pink inside with tiny edible seeds. Sunday morning we took the boat across the lake, went up&over the mountain in a cable car, declined visiting the aboriginal formosa village ($$$$$), rode the cable car back down, went back to the market guy for some more of the delicious fruit, and took the boat back across. We had lunch at a little lake-side cafe. Opa ordered what looked like little quiches, but turned out to be more like creme brulee. Yum, dessert for lunch... and we just made it back to the hotel before the rain started to come down in earnest. Taxi, bus, train, and we got to Opa's hotel in Hsinchu (or something) (south of Taipei, where Teradyne is), before dinner. For which we went to an italian/chinese cafe next door, and ate with knife and fork. This may be the end of the chopstick diet...
Right now I'm with Opa at the office and tomorrow I'll start my trek back to the US. I have not been bored but I'm definitely ready to head back home!
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