More Pictures With Our U.S. Visitors

My cousin, Jacque's twins were so excited to get their matching Hanboks. Aren't they darling?



Here they are showing some Korean won along with jewelry their mom bought for them here in South Korea.


These are pictures Curt (hubby) took with his camera. This one is with my Korean girlfriend, Hellena, showing a wall in Insadong where people write all kinds of things on it. It was really cool to look at.

The Korean hanok is becoming extinct so the city government of Seoul is restoring and rebuilding this traditional Korean house. We visited Bukchon which is also called Hanok Town. It contains private homes along with small museums such as the maedeup museum and embroidery museum. Since we visited this area last only months ago, now the museums all seem to charge 3000-5000 WON ($3-5 US).

The area is like stepping back in time.

A picture of all the girls.

More Sightseeing in Seoul

Wendy, my sister, picked the wrong shoes to wear for the day. She had never worn them before and this was NOT the day to break them in. Our first stop was Insadong and she bought a pair of indoor slipper which she ended up wearing most of the day. This picture summed up her feelings about those new shoes.



Taking the subway to Insadong.


My niece, Hayley.



We passed by this office building which displayed this sign. Hmmmm.

Changdeokgung Palace. We thought you could just tour the palace at your leisure but that is only on Thursdays. The English speaking tour would last 1 1/2 hours. We stayed about 10 minutes and it was just too hot so we left.

T-shirt I saw while the English translator was speaking.

Pictures of Changedeokgung Palace. The palace was built in 1405 during the Joseon Dynasty. It was destroyed during the Imjin Invasion by the Japanese (1592-1598). It was reconstructed during the reign of King Gwanghaegun (1608-1623).

Old Korean housing that has been preserved in Seoul.

I have never seen one of these before and I have no idea what it is but it was so cool.

It seats two.

Ready to head back to Suwon.

Hwaseong Fortress

Hwaseong Fortress is just about a mile away from our apartment so off we set for another adventure in South Korea along with some exercise. Construction was planned by the 22nd king of the Joseon Dynasty, Jeongjo, when he decided to move his father's tomb from the Yangju area to Mt. Paldalsan in Suwon County in 1789. The fortress construction was started January 1794 and completed in June 1796.

This is called a "Poru" which is a tower with many holes which would enable the defenders to attack using guns for the smaller openings and cannons for the larger openings.

Janganmun Gate 장안문 - It is the north gate of the Fortress and it's main gate as well.

Gongsimdon is a 3-story stone brick structure built on top of the fortress wall. There are many holes in the wall which allowed sentries to keep watch on outside activities and to shoot intruders if needed. A unique feature of Hwaseong Fortress.

Steps leading up the Fortress wall.

To gauge just how massive this fortress is, do you see the people in the center of this picture?

A close up of the brick wall.

A path that runs along the Fortress.

Another pathway, I wouldn't want to try this during a rainstorm.

There is a lot of climbing and steps to be found throughout the Fortress. There were also a lot of Koreans taking advantage of the beautiful day.

More steps.

What you find at the top.

A beautiful view of the city of Suwon. Can you see our apartment?

Suwon is no small city and is growing unbelievably fast. There is always a construction crane in view just about from any vantage point.

This is not the first time I've seen this in Suwon. These are patients from a local hospital out for a little walk. It was four men, two had their left hand bandaged and I do admit that I looked at their backsides to see if they were covered.

I took a break from part of the walk, I was just too tuckered out. As I was sitting on a bench waiting for Curt to return, two Koreans with rather large lensed cameras walked by. All of a sudden, I hear click, click, click. They had ducked behind a tree about 20 yards from me and were taking pictures of me. I looked up at them and gave them the peace sign along with my biggest smile. They turned and ran.

I thought that was the end of the excitement for the day but you never know in South Korea. I'll tell you tomorrow what I witnessed and I have the pictures to prove it. Stay tuned, you won't believe it!