Wed - changing of the palace guards

Every hour, they have a changing of the guards ceremony at the palace.  Here are a couple of shots from when we were there. We even got to have our picture taken with one of the guys.  (We also were there when they had an earthquake / emergency preparedness drill!!)

Wed - with the kids at the palace

As we were leaving one of the museums this morning, we saw a huge group of preschoolers coming up the path - they were really cute, and their teacher agreed to have a big group picture!

Later on, as we were leaving the palace, 3 older school age girls came up giggling and tried out their English on us.  Two of the girls interviewed us in English and wrote down our answers.  At the end, they high-fived it, "wiped the sweat off their brows" and skipped away....glad they made it through their homework!  It was cute!

Wed - National Palace Museum and National Folk Museum of Korea

While we were visiting the palace, we also toured 2 great museums - the National Palace Museum which reopened since we went 4 years ago, and the National Folk Museum....here are some sample pictures:

Wednesday "CIty Tour" - 1st stop Gyeongbok Palace

This morning we met up with HaeSung Yoon, the tour guide Holt lined up for us for our 1/2 day city tour (the rest of the trip we were out and about on our own).  She was a lot of fun, and it was nice to talk with someone local to get more insight into Seoul life.  We had already done a lot of the things that are typically done as part of the tour, so we went up to see the palace which was almost right outside the door of our hotel....the Gyeongbok Palace.  We saw part of this last time in Seoul - we think - but there was a lot of the palace area and museums which were either refurbished or newly opened from a few years ago.  Here are some shots of the palace architecture and some of the two of us...

By our "year of the rooster" rooster!

Tuesday - More fun pictures!

Here are some more fun pictures from today...."flipper girl" made us think of breakfasts with Annabelle!  Three more days til we meet Aaidan, and then 3 days after that back with Annabelle and Aaidan!! 

Tuesday - Dinner in Insadong

After dinner we went back to Insadong, picked up 1 quick gift, and then headed up 1 of the cool alleyways which had tons of great restaurants.

Here's a view up one of the alleys and some of the restaurants we saw...

We finally picked one where we got some Soju (Korean liquor), pork-braised soy soup, and some bulgogi (beef) and vegetable soup we cooked at our table - again, very good!

Tuesday afternoon - Namdaemun Market

We spent Tuesday afternoon at Namdaemun Market, a huge bustling indoor outdoor market where you could get easily lost and find ALL kinds of things - clothes, gifts, food, herbs,....you name it.

Towards the end, we finally came across one of the stands we were looking for - a stand where you could get a stamp made with your names in english around the outside and Korean letters in the middle which would sound out approximately your name as said in English! Here is a shot of the place, as well as a stamp made with our 2 names!

For a late-afternoon snack, we had one of the street vendors cook us up some squid and barbequed chicken, as well as the Korean beer she quickly gave us before we realized it....it was good break!

On the way back to the subway, we passed a bunch of camera stores...check out the size of these lenses!