Seoul

We headed back to Seoul to see a few things that we had missed before. It is very cold in Korea these days, so we braved the elements and wandered out. The first thing we did was get a T money card which is an awesome card. You put money on the card and just swipe it when you go into the subway station and again when you exit and that way you don't have to purchase a ticket each time. It was very useful. The first place we saw was our 3rd of 5 palaces in Seoul, Deoksugung.

This was originally a private villa, but it became a palace in 1593 after all of the other palaces were destroyed during the Japanese invasion. This was the building with the King's throne.

It also had 2 museums of art, which were nice to have since it was warm in there. We next took the subway to Changdeokgung, the only palace you need to be on a tour to see.

Luckily there are a couple English tours, so we knew what was going on. This is the best preserved palace in Seoul and definitely is the most impressive. If you have time for only one palace, this is the one to go to. Injeongjeon Hall is one of Korea's National Treasures and was used for official ceremonies.

Also in this palace complex was a secret garden.

It wasn't a flower garden, but a place for the Royal family to relax and enjoy nature. The tour was over an hour, and by that time my toes and fingers were frozen. We had some lunch and then were off again, this time to Olympic Park on the east side of the city. As you may or may not know, I love the Olympics and hope someday to compete in them or at the very least attend one. We looked around Olympic Park, which includes a small skating rink. I think they were trying to say "Happy Christmas" here,

but I can't be too sure. We didn't get to see all of Olympic Park, but we saw the Peace Gate,

the country flags

and the Olympic Museum. Here we are with the mascots, Hodori, of the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. I really enjoyed the museum. It covered all Olympics, not just the Seoul Olympics and included memorabilia from athletes include Park's swim cap, who won in swimming at Beijing. Next we went to the Coex Mall area. First we saw Bongeunsa,

a temple across the street from the mall. The painting on the sides of the buildings in this temple complex were very vivid and colorful. Another highlight was this large standing Buddha of the future.

After visiting the temple, we went to the Coex mall. This mall was huge, awesome, and pricey. It pretty much had any kind of food you wanted including TGIFridays and other American places. We didn't eat there, just wandered around. We meant to go to the kimchi museum, but totally forgot. There is also an aquarium in the mall, but we didn't look at it. We are kind of aquariumed out right now. Even though it was freezing cold and uncomfortable to be outside for any long period of time, we really enjoyed what we saw. Seoul definitely has a lot to offer and is so easy to get around with the subway system. Now I'm back home and it is snowing.