Today traffic was the worst we have seen and it took two hours to travel from the port to downtown Seoul. We did not arrive until 1:30 pm, missing the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the royal palace.
As we crawled along in the traffic, we were amazed to see 7 Eleven stores on many street corners.
Since it was 1:30, our next stop would be a typical Korean lunch. Everything in the dishes was very spicey with chili.
This time we each had a whole (small) boiled chicken(?) in a broth; the chicken was stuffed with rice....
The highlight of the lunch came when one of the restaurant's servers asked our guide if Terry was a movie star! Well, he still hasn't got that out of his head!
After lunch, one in our group wanted a few minutes to step into a store we had passed to buy something. So, our guide allotted us some time to wander in the stores. As we walked along, we saw many young people all dressed up in their National dress.
It seems that on weekends, they rent these costumes for 10,000 won (just under $10) for 2 hours. They head to the gardens, the palace, and even the shopping district and pose for photos and visit with their friends.
During the last week, the president of South Korea was fired for taking bribes. Our guide was obviously happy about this but hundreds were not and we now stumbled upon a huge demonstration.
First we see hundreds of policemen in full riot gear, carrying shields and helmets!
We soon discovered they were headed to the demonstration and we were, too.
Now to make the horrendous traffic in this city even worse, there were road closures due to the demonstration. Our bus driver could not meet us at our originally designated spot so we had to cross a road, cutting through the march of the demonstrators. Some of them were not happy with us...you can still understand swear words delivered in a foreign language.
Finally on the bus, we made our way over to the National Folk Museum.
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| Our guide, SunJin |
We had more fun observing the families at play...
And the young people in their National dress.
Finally, we went to the Imperial Palace aka Gyeongbokgung Palace.
Built in 1395, it is the largest of the Five Grand Palaces built by the Joseon dynasty and served as the home of the Kings, the Kings' households, as well as the government of the dynasty.
An effort by the Korean government has been ongoing to rebuild and restore the buildings that were destroyed during the Japanese occupation. This restoration project aims to fully restore Gyeongbokgung Palace to its original form in the next twenty years.
The restoration is coming along beautifully...
It was then late afternoon and time for us to return to the ship.
As we were headed out of town, we caught a glimpse out our bus window of the statue of King Sejong, sitting high above Gwanghwamun Square.
Our itinerary included a stop here but there was no time left in our day. King Sejong reigned from 1418 - 1450 and was responsible for some of the most brilliant achievements in the history of Korea, including the creation of the Korean alphabet and scientific instruments such as a sundial, rain gauge and celestial globe.
So that ends our 3-port stop in Korea. With the exception of the big cities having such horrible traffic, we really liked our visit here. The country is beautiful, and clean, and the people friendly.
To continue reading, scroll up towards the top of this page and click in the right-hand column the entry entitled: Beijing, China--Day 1.
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