National Museum of Korea

Where can you go to see the best art, sculptures, and historic relics of Korea? Why the National Museum of Korea of course! We couldn’t believe that we spent four hours soaking it up and didn't even see everything. The museum takes you through the development and long history of good'ol K-town. We saw fascinating prehistoric artifacts, breathtaking cultural pieces, and beautiful artwork. Afterwards we asked ourselves why we hadn't been here before! 

This is only the entrance

Neolithic Pottery

John's favorite

Who needs a box and newspapers?

Indian guardian

Artist's delight

The back-side of a bronze mirror

The front-side of a bronze mirror

Billy Thomas, what do you think about these?

The mountain spirit sporting a sweet beard

Early 20th century Korea, we hope to find some more photo's like this

A leader from the Chosan period

Yea

She's my Cherry Pie

The second part of our journey continued in the beautiful city of Seoul.  We started our second day walking the same streets we had walked the night before, only this time the Soju tents were away and the drunks were home sleeping.  We walked up and down the cherry blossom lined streets soaking in the atmosphere until our hunger drove us to a little restaurant in the center of Insadong (a great place to find traditional art and gifts).  We ate some food, hit the streets for some shopping where Jennifer bought a hand carved stamp, then jumped on a subway to meet our friends Paul and Cecil at a cherry blossom festival.  We strolled up and down the street in awe of the majestic flowers that hung above us, if only they could last more than two weeks.  

Locks of Love

Our up and coming China adventure begins with our procurement of a Visa (Virtually Impossible to Secure Abroad) which has proven to be quite a daunting task.  After many calls to the Chinese Embassy,  hours navigating their website, more calls to travel agents, and about $500, we found a small shop at the base of Namsan Mountain where we could complete our mission.  Early Saturday morning we grabbed a bus to Seoul, hopped on a subway, found the shop, filled out the necessary paperwork, handed over our passports, and then took a memorable journey to the top of of the mountain where the famed Seoul Tower stands.  There we partook in the romanticism that wisps through the air...

Not as cold as it looks

Seoul Rocks!

This is the Seoul Tower Cartoon standing next to a yellow character

The Tower 479 meters tall stands on the top of a hill in north end of Seoul.  For comparison the Empire State Building is 381 meters.

Lego Lad

Home sweet home is only 9,596 km (5,682 miles) away

K-Poppin pimp

Seoul Tower is known for it's romantic views and is a haven for couples and families.  One of the activities is to write a message on a tile and put it on the wall for all to see.

Happy Tower

Another activity is to get a lock, write a message on it, and put it outside for all to see.  This idea began in a Korean movie a few years ago and has since taken over the surrounding tower.

More of the love locks

Our contribution to the tower