Goodbye Korea - For Now

Our last day in Korea we walked over 11 miles throughout the city looking at parks, Palaces and the old part of town where people live in the traditional Hanok style houses. Up and down the tiny winding streets looking at these charming residences, and all around the palace grounds. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

I have been told that the pots under the plants contain kimchee. 

Hey Hillary, when I saw this house I thought of you and the K-Drama "Personal Taste".

Up this street is the Doo Guest House, a traditional Hanok place to book a quiet room for a night or a week. 

Roof tops over Insa-dong

A lot of tourists walking around this part of town.

I will be honest, I thought they were making up all that pottery gallery stuff for the character So Yi-jeong in Boys over Flowers, but they weren't. We saw several lovely galleries. 

This is the main gate to the Gyeonbokgung Palace. The Main Palace of the Joseon Dynasty. Built in 1395.

The above structure is called the Guanghwamun Gate. We arrived in time to take pictures with the Palace Guards.

You enter an outer courtyard and see another gate - The Heungnyemun Gate or inner gate.

The big guy with the big drum!

Looking back to main gate. 

Pretty soon the soldier banged the drum and the very noisy ceremony for Changing of the Guard started. 

The band enters followed by the guards and the warriors.

This is the Geunjeongjeon - Throne Hall for official Court Audiences with the King and where the King would receive foreign envoys.

The Sajeongjeon or Council Hall where the king would meet with his advisors.

Gyeonghoeru Pavilion. It is surrounded by a small lake with a bridge to the pavilion and surrounding lawn. 

We were able to see the King and Queen's living quarters but I didn't take any photos as they were being renovated and surrounded by scaffolding. Below you will see the walls and storage areas surrounding the Throne Hall. 

Sadly, the time came for us to leave "The Land of the Morning Calm", but we look forward to making another trip and seeing many more wonderful sights. 

Korea - Almost Living Hillary's Dream

We have walked and walked and walked all over the Insa-dong and surrounding areas here in Seoul, but have actually seen so very little of the City. What we have seen has been lovely, fun, mostly crowded with delicious foods. Hillary's dream has been to go to Korea (she is such a k-drama fan and loves all things Korean) and just wander Seoul and the country for a few days. To top off her list she would love to photo-bomb a filming of any kind of Korean TV show. Well, I almost got to do it! 

****

Many of the restaurants display their dishes on the street in a case. Of course the food is plastic and looks a little... um... odd, but it does give you an idea of what you might want to eat.

Sunday evening Darryl and I decided to try a traditional meal. We were walking in the little side streets when we found it. The seats were all on the floor and Darryl's legs won't bend "Indian style" so he stretched his legs out under the table. :-) 

We didn't realize how many courses we were going to get (6) but I was only able to get a few pictures of the first 3 courses. 

It was delicious and I enjoyed it immensely.

Hillary kept telling me to look for a TV show taping somewhere. The only thing I found was a newscast at the headwaters of the creek that runs through town. All of the yellow ribbons hanging everywhere around this plaza have hand written messages on them of well wishes for the survivors of the Sewol Ferry Accident. I assume that's what the newscaster was reporting on.

We wandered down to the wishing well before going on down the creek. 

The young people with flags, blue T-Shirts and flyers are advertising for Pagoda. Don't know what that is..

But they would chant and wave the flags and then the girls would pass out the ads. 

One day we found a lovely park outside one of the palaces where we rested for a few days. 

This palace was open but only had tours on the hour and English Tours only at 2:00 p.m.

We saw advertising for several musicals playing in town including Dracula, Wicked and CATS. 

Wonderful traditional Korean BBQ at our table. 

The fun of this Hand dipped ice cream shop is the tricks he does with the cones. For the best Soft Serve Ice Cream in Korea, go to McDonalds. 

 Fish Cakes on the street-

This is one of the places where the independence movement of Korea started in the early 1900's

  

Saturday we visited the grounds of the Buddhist Temple. 

 

I still have more photos of the Castle and the old part of town that I will post in a few days.