July 03 (Thursday) – Seoul City Tour

Today we met our tour guide, Anthony, and were off at 9:00am for our city tour.   There were some pretty streets...

interesting buildings (old and modern)... 

statues...

and interesting sights during the day touring the city.

 This is the gate of the Gyeongokgung Palace.

We parked near the palace just in time to see a rehearsal for the Changing of the Guard.  This ceremony is a recreation of the changing ceremony that occurred when Korea had an emperor.

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Video 1 of rehearsal
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Video 2 of rehearsal
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Video 3 of rehearsal
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The side of the palace where the rehearsal was taking place. 

After watching them for a while we moved into the vast plaza in front of the palace for the actual reenactment. 

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Video 1 of Changing of the guards 
Drum announcing the start
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Video 2 of Changing of the guards
Entering
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Video 3 of Changing of the guards
Continuing
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Video 4 of Changing of the guards
Old guards leaving
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More Seoul Changing of the Guard
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Lots of tourists watching the changing of the guards

and then getting their photos taken before touring the palace. 

Then we headed into the palace grounds. 

This is the throne room of the palace.

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Video of throne room
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A sundial outside the throne room.

A temple on the palace grounds.

The Korean calendar years are given designations, similar to the Chinese calendar.  We all checked out the astrological sign for our year of birth.

Then it was a visit to the National Folk Museum.  The building was very new and very large and beautifully made.  We spent a fair amount of time wandering the exhibits.

We ate lunch at a typical Korean restaurant.  Anthony, our guide, ordered lunch for us.  The spread of food was massive.  And very tasty.

After lunch we wandered around the nearby shopping neighborhood, Insadong-gil.  

Liam picked up a few things but mostly we enjoyed window shopping. 

Then we walked to the nearby Jogyesa Buddhist Temple.  

Golden Buddhas, 

beautiful buildings, 

and lots of lotus blossoms. 

Then we had a short drive to the Buckchon Neighborhood.  This neighborhood has retained it’s historical charm.  

A lot of people visit the streets and shops, but people live here so they have a closure time of 5:00pm.  

There were people out with time closure signs so that the tourists wouldn’t overstay their welcome.  

The last stop of the day was a cable car ride up to the mountaintop.  Lots of views over all of Seoul.

North Seoul Tower…

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Video from cable car
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Mileage signs.

We spent a lot of time taking in the good views over the city.

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Video of Seoul
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And, there were tons of love locks on the fences around the area. 

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More Seoul 
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Video 1 of  Love Locks
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Video 2 of Love Locks
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