Monday April 17, 2017

We decided to spend an extra day in Busan because we knew that Monday was going to be a rainy day and would be a better day to travel to Seoul. It rained from the time we left our looooove motel in Busan to arriving at our Tourist Hotel in Seoul.

The bus cost approximately $22.00 for a 4.5 hour trip, we stopped for a 15 minute break and arrived on time in Seoul.

We loaded our bikes and headed out towards our hotel in Gangnam. We stayed on the sidewalk, which doubled as a bike lane, although most of the pedestrian didn’t know that it was a bike lane. They were obviously not accustomed to seeing loaded touring bikes cycling on the sidewalk.

We found the hotel relatively easily and after settling in investigated the neighbourhood. It is going to be expensive eating in this area. A beer is about $5-10 per bottle, we will stick to the “happy water” from the convenience store at $1.30 to $1.80 per bottle

Tuesday April 18, 2018

We headed out to downtown Seoul and the Namdaemun Market, on the subway. We stopped for a second to orientate the map and a gentleman stopped to give us directions on getting to the subway. We were in the subway looking for the ticket machine and another person stopped to help us. Is this a capital city? Surely people should be going about their business and not helping lost looking tourists. Not in Seoul, every time we stopped to check out our map someone stopped and gave us directions, even if they didn’t speak English they would check out the subway map and tell us which way to go to catch the right train by pointing on the map and the signs in the station! I have never experienced this anywhere else in the world. Even in friendly New Zealand, Seoul is currently beating them hands-down. While I was sitting on the train a gentleman asked where we were from and chatted to me about Canada and South Korea – his English was very good and he had visited Toronto and Montreal.

We got to the downtown and it started to rain. We spotted a buddy bear outside of the German Embassy. I hope you remember the fun time we had in Havana, Cuba with the Buddy Bears. This bear is a new bear created for the relocated German embassy in Seoul.

We had planned on visiting the City Hall and the market, but with the rain and the cooler temperatures we didn’t want to spend any time outside.

I suggested heading back on the train to the Codex or Lotte indoor mall. Ralf wasn’t keen on window shopping, but he wasn’t keen on getting wet either.

The Lotte Mall is a huge mall with an indoor skating rink, a “traditional village” and other activities for kids and a huge shopping area. When we got there Ralf perked up as it wasn’t a complete waste of time window shopping.

The traditional village had four statues, called Devas.  It is believed in Buddhism that there are four guardians, that guard the four cardinal directions. 

On the top floor was an area set aside to celebrate the life of \”Geum-A\” Chyun-Deuk Pi.  He was a celebrated Korean essayist and poet.  I love having my photo taken with these statues, I have lost count of the amount of photos that I have had taken like this.

We did spend quite a bit of time looking at electronics, cameras and fun stuff.  As we were looking at the 4 D chair and glasses, an assistance asked if we would like to try the ride.  Ralf jumped in the chair, fastened the seatbelt and he was away. He looked really silly, but with a big grin on his face. 

There were a lot of restaurants including one that sold a hangover cure!

I think it is designed to make you barf!

Although it was a cold and rainy day, we still enjoyed the day.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a better day.