Thursday, December 1, 2011

Back to Seoul

When we arrived back in Seoul, the driver dropped us off downtown near the Deoksugung Palace and we just happened to catch the changing of the guard. It was quite a pagent.




We were hungry and decided to go have lunch before checking out the inside of the palace and the museum. Augie found a recommendation from a fellow geocacher for a restaurant nearby called the Taco Place. We're in Korea, so why not eat Mexican?

After lunch, we checked in with the local tourist information office to get some suggestions about what to see and do in the next couple of days. Since we have a beautiful, rainless day today, we decided to try to do as much as we could. They suggested that we see the Gyeongbokgung Palace first, since it closes at 5 pm. It was already 3:30. They have a folklore museum on the palace grounds.
Augie and I were both born in the year of the Ox. They had all the animals represented.

This was an exhibit on how to create Korean syllables.

Statue of one of the most famous and beloved kings. He is in the center of a big square, which had police barracades all around it, and bus loads of police lined one side of the street. We thought there must be some famous dignitary coming to visit, but we found that there was going to be a protest later today.
It turned out that there were a lot more police than protesters.

We stayed in the Palace and museum until closing time, then walked back to the subway to return home. It's just too cold to walk around after dark, and I only have a sweat shirt. So when we got back to the shopping mall under Times Square, I broke down and bought a nice, warm, lined, hooded jacket. I hope we have another rainless day tomorrow, because now with my warm jacket and gloves, there will be no stopping me.

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