Palace day

We visited Gyeongbukgung palace from Joseon dynasty - there are several palaces in the same area. The home of the president is also near here.










Changing of the guard








Woman walking in traditional costume


The palaces are near the central area of Seoul now surrounded by many (many, many) tall buildings. It was such a contrast. The Gyeongbukgung palace buildings were burned and many destroyed during two invasions/occupations by the Japanese. Now there is a lot of empty space but at one time the compound included 500 buildings.



The tops of the buildings are so beautifully and brightly painted. The amount of work to create and maintain this must be incredible and even more so in the past.






Mountains behind it and to the other side, Namsan mountain gave it gorgeous surroundings.


The throne area.











This building was used as a banquet hall surrounded by a manmade lake with manmade islands on it.








View of the Folk Museum



Inside the folk museum, a diorama of a traditional Korean wedding


More dioramas





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Insadong and palaces

Here is Colleen and me standing by the Hyatt.



And walking in Itaewon.



One of the familiar sites I mentioned before.






After breakfast we hopped on a city tour bus which was a fairly interesting way to travel through much of central Seoul. We got off at Insadong which is a shopping area for more traditional Korean items. Love the wooden masks.






Colleen and I both bought new scarves because it was cold and it seems like Colleen attracted another Korean mom who had to put the scarf on her.


Just an interesting building



After shopping we stopped in a Korean Teahouse









And then off to the palace and Folk Museum. Will make that a new entry.


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Itaewon

Breakfast at Paris Baguette in the Itaewon area - a place full of foreign stores and restaurants - including many familiar ones.


Not traditional food for breakfast here but yummy - the one in the lower left is the most attractive hot dog! Instead of a bun, it's kind of a flaky pastry crust


Colleen was just happy to be sitting together in a coffee shop the way we used to so many mornings


I was warned about the "squatter" toilets but haven't seen any so far - but a couple of high tech ones with heated seats and other functions. On some of them the only English word is "stop" - in case you punched a couple of other buttons.... And warmed seats are nice, especially when the restroom is not very warm!

Forget save the best for last

Jungwon Han, whom I knew through my preemie business, came to Incheon airport to pick us up - and drove the fairly long distance to our hotel, h along the way to see office and baby store operation. Then we picked up Colleen and he drove us to a restaurant, Yongsusan.



We had a traditional Korean meal- it was a fixed menu of at least a dozen items brought a couple at a time to our table and served to us.



Every course was wonderful. Move over, Italian food... this was right up there!



This was dessert



Possibly we had our best meal first but this was a memorable and wonderful beginning to our time in Korea! Thanks to our very gracious and generous host!

Airplane views

Views out the airplane of northof Alaska, Siberia and Korea


















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Day 1 - in the air

May not feature all the food this time like I did in Italy but just had to go on about the 1st class service..... After all I paid dearly to get all these miles that allowed us to upgrade - by letting Bill travel so much ;)

Appetizers...



Including wonderful pumpkin soup


Choice of several entrees






Plus there was a dessert cart....

Ok so after the excitement of all the amenities of business class, it still is a 14 1/2 hour flight, following a 2 hour flight after getting about 3 hours of sleep last night. But we slept a couple of hours, watched a movie, had another meal....going to gain 5 lbs just on the plane.



Guess I'll try to sleep off this meal (which they called "between meal snack")...


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