Today was our last day in Seoul, capital of South Korea, and it’s one that didn’t go to plan. However, unlike our first day here, it’s one that didn’t go to plan in a positive way and one that created some great memories.
A relaxing start to the day
We left the hotel at around 08:30 this morning before taking a leisurely walk along Cheonggyecheon, which is a park set alongside the banks of a stream that runs through this part of Seoul.
It was previously the location of an elevated highway but, after that was taken down, the area was dedicated to nature and is home to all sorts of wildlife. While walking along it we could see that the river was full of fish, and there were lots of birds either relaxing or bathing in the water.
There were also plenty of places to sit and relax, and I can imagine that it would be a great place to take your lunch break from your office. There was even an open air library that was being set up when we walked past.
We walked along the stream for around 1km, and had a really enjoyable time. However, before long, it was time to head back to the streets once we reached the Gwanghwamun area, so that we could make our way towards Gyeongbokgung Palace – the other big palace in Seoul – to have a look around.
Changing of The Guard
We timed our visit to Gyeongbokgung so that we could watch the changing of the guard ceremony, which happens twice per day, before exploring the palace. While the palace is no longer a royal residence I read online that it was worth seeing and so we didn’t want to miss it.
Neither did a lot of other people, it seems, as we arrived 25 minutes before the ceremony started and managed to get one of the last spaces on the front row. We were stood just inside the entrance to the courtyard and so, while the people at the other side were facing the front of the ceremony, we were closest to the actors that were recreating the ceremony which made for some great footage.
There are explanations of what is happening at each step given in Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese and we really enjoyed learning about the ceremony, and about the traditions of the royal court.
The ceremony lasted about 15 minutes and, as soon as it finished, most people who were watching immediately went into the palace to start their visit. We didn’t want to be in the middle of that crowd, which must have been a couple of thousand people, and so we headed to the Tim Hortons around the corner to grab a cold drink before heading back in.
A few hours at Gyeongbokgung Palace
When we got back to the palace an hour later it was still busy – after all, it’s one of the main sights of the city – but it was a lot less busy than if we had gone straight inside.
We spent a couple of hours exploring the grounds of the palace seeing lots of really amazing buildings including the banquet hall, the royal residences, a couple of ornate ponds, and some lovely gardens.
Wherever you look in the palace you will see lots of amazing things, and take some great photos. Like Gyeongbokgung the other day, the palace was full of people taking photos for a variety of reasons including wedding photos, and also Instagram shots.
The grounds of the palace are quite big, and it’s not just courtyards the place is filled with amazing gardens, so I recommend taking your time and not rushing. We took a few breaks during the time that we spent here so that we could enjoy our visit and not push ourselves too much in the heat, although it was cloudy today which helped a little bit.
I do definitely recommend a visit here when you’re in Seoul, but I have to say that I enjoyed Gyeongbokgung more the other day. Although both are definitely worth a visit as the atmosphere at both of them is just so different.
Visiting the N Seoul Tower
Our next stop was the N Seoul Tower, also called the Namsan Tower, which is located on the top of a hill just south of Myeongdong. There are a few ways that you can get there including local bus, shuttle bus, taxi, and walking up the hill if you’re feeling energetic, but the easiest way for most people is the cable car.
This is what we chose, but just a word of warning that you do still have to walk up some very steep roads to get to the cable car station so take a taxi to the station if you have trouble walking.
The ride to the top only takes a few minutes and you’re treated to some great views of Seoul, and the surrounding area, but this was nothing compared to the views from the top.
When you get to the top you exit one way if you are fine with stairs, the other way if you need to take the elevator up to the main level. We didn’t know this so just followed everybody else, but one of the staff came to us and directed us towards the elevator before we made our way up the stairs.
Unfortunately, his colleague who was controlling the cable car didn’t see this and so the doors closed before we could get there (we would have had to walk through the cable car and out the other side). After shouting “sh*t” he ran to try to stop the cable car but it was too late and we decided to just take the stairs slowly rather than wait 5 minutes for the next cable car to some back up.
On the way up we passed lots of padlocks attached to the railings. Apparently it’s tradition for couples to attach these “love locks” there as a way of preserving their love, and there are tens of thousands of them all the way up the railings.
We grabbed a couple of cold drinks and then sat out on the seats overlooking Seoul. This was where our plan for the day started to unravel. We had planned to only spend a short time here to enjoy the view before heading off to the Museum of Korea, but this ended up being our last major stop of the day.
An unexpected air display
My Mum has this ability to have strangely good timing with some of the things that she says and, while we were relaxing overlooking the city, she asked me why she hadn’t seen any planes in the sky. I was about to tell her that it’s because both airports are some distance outside of the city, but before I could even start my reply I saw something out of the corner of my eye, looked up, and saw a formation of 8 aircraft flying towards us – which we hadn’t heard a sound from until that point.
“You mean like that?” I said, as the Black Eagles (Korea’s national air display team) flew straight over our heads to start a display.
I saw the Black Eagles at the Royal International Air Tattoo in the UK a couple of years ago, and they were one of the highlights of the weekend for me, so I was really excited to see them in their own country.
They seemed to be displaying on the opposite side of the hill and so we walked over there, where we were able to watch most of the display from a great vantage point on the same level as the display itself.
It turns out that the display was taking place over a festival that was happening in the park right next to the Museum of Korea, which we had been planning to visit, but had we not decided to relax for a little while longer then we would have missed the display completely.
A change of plans for our final evening
As we stayed at the N Seoul Tower for longer than expected we didn’t have enough time to visit the museum as planned without rushing, even though it was open late today, and we didn’t want to rush so we decided to head back to the hotel for a little while before heading back out into the city for dinner.
On the way back to the hotel we made a detour to Insadong Culture Street, which is close to our hotel, where we spent some time shopping and picking up souvenirs. Some of the things are a little expensive, but I bought some things here that I didn’t see anywhere else in Seoul including some chopsticks and a tie with the Korean alphabet on.
After freshening up we headed back into town to have some dinner. Even though we had already been there twice we decided to visit the street food market at Myeongdong again because we really enjoyed it the other times that we visited, and there were some really nice items that we wanted to try one last time before leaving tomorrow.
This meant that the only proper sit down meal we had in Seoul was at an American BBQ place, but we tried so many different things at the food market that I wasn’t disappointed.
Next time I’m in Korea I will have to try some proper Korean BBQ, though, as it’s amazing!