August 24: Seoul Day 2

Saturday was our last day in Seoul. We signed up for a bike tour in the morning which turned out to be the perfect way to see a lot of sites in Seoul in a short amount of time. Our tour company provided e-bikes, helmets and safety vests. The e-bikes made pedaling uphill a breeze.

 

Our first stop was a statue of King Sejong who is famous for inventing hangul, the Korean alphabet in 1443. Prior to his invention, Koreans used Chinese characters which are difficult to learn. The Korean alphabet made literacy achievable for ordinary people who couldn't devote years of study to learn how to read and write.

Next up was Gyeongbokgung Palace, This was the main royal palace during the Joseon dynasty and was originally built in 1395. It suffered during subsequent Japanese occupations, but has experienced ongoing restoration since 1990. Ancient Korea used four colors and assigned values to each color. Red is power, yellow is riches, blue represents purity of thought and green is for benevolence and love. The palace is mostly painted blue and green, highlighting those virtues.

We got to the palace in time to watch the changing of the guard, a highly choreographed event that happens twice a day.

The palace was guarded by haechi, magical creatures that protect against fire and bad luck. And which are evidence that Koreans have appreciated cuteness for centuries.

We rode our bikes through the West Village to see examples of traditional Korean architecture. Servants who worked in the palace in the joseon dynasty lived in the West Village.

The streets in the West Village were very narrow with 90 degree turns which made bike riding challenging.

Next we stopped in a market.

We sampled a few different kinds of ddoek. Although they had different flavorings, they are all made of rice and are all chewy. This does is all chewiness and no flavor.

The brown ddoek are fried in soy sauce and the red ddoek are flavored with chili sauce.

We also visited a bakery named Scoff, whose motto was Eat More Gluten, which is not especially helpful to Abe,

Here's a photo of a few of the delicious bakery items for isle.

This is a fountain near the Blue House, South Korea's official residence for their president. The buildings in this photo are for entertaining heads of state. North Korea is about 30 miles to the north of the big hill.

The North Village is on the other side of the government buildings. During the Joseon dynasty, this area held about 30 villas where noblemen lived. The Japanese ended the Joseon dynasty when they invaded in 1910. Economic and social pressure meant the villas were chopped up into about 2,300 homes. Now the area is carefully preserved.

Our last stop on the tour was the Jogyesa Temple. The temple was celebrating a water lily festival so we saw lots of potted water lilies.

Here are the happy bikers.

This temple held three statues of Buddha, representing the past, present, and future.

This is a photo of our two terrific tour guides who kept us safe and answered all our questions. Taejin is a native of Seoul and Tom is from the UK.

We had time for one more Korean meal before heading to the airport. This time Abe and Gibson had bulgogi, thinly sliced beef, and Brandan and Becky had bibimbap, rice and vegetables. This restaurant had the very best die dish we ate the entire trip: fried eggplant. It also had the strangest: steamed jellyfish. Becky gave into peer pressure and ate some. She didn't die, but is unlikely to eat it again. In the photo you can see the fried eggplant on Gibson's plate while Abe and Gibson have loaded their chopsticks with jellyfish.

Abe was an excellent tour guide and we enjoyed our adventures in South Korea. We are inspired to be more generous like the Koreans we met are and to be open to new experiences. And we were thankful to see faithful Korean saints living the gospel joyfully and faithfully. Abe's mission continues to bless us.