This palace is the biggest among the five palaces in Seoul. We decided to come just for the changing guard ceremony and not going to tour the palace. We had had enough of palaces.
Gyeongbokgung subway station
The changing guard ceremony had almost finished when we reached there.
Main entrance of Gyeongbokgung
After the ceremony was ended, it's time to take photos with the guards.
They are all very tall, a head taller than me means their height is around 1.8 metres.
The weapons
National Palace Museum
It's free admission. We had one hour to visit this place before the next changing guard ceremony.
Hanbok on display
Queen's hairpins
Children socks and shoes
King's private use car
The Queen also has one. I think hers is nicer. :)
Personal stamps
Traditional musical instruments
Mostly percussion
The biggest clock I've ever seen.
After this, we went back to the palace ground to catch the changing guard ceremony again.
Flowers at Gyeongbokgung
Next, we wanted to see Cheong Wa Dae or Blue House, the residential house of President. On the map, it was just behind Gyeongbokgung but it was actually very far, probably 1-2 km away from where we started.
Later I knew that pagoda is the National Folk Museum.
Gyeongbokgung perimeter
Ceiling of a Gyeongbokgung gate.
National Folk Museum
We didn't visit the museum and only walked around the outdoor displays.
Like those in Jeju Island
Totem poles
Outdoor folk performance
We continued our lovely afternoon walk to Cheong Wa Dae. Great cool weather with nice scenery, something that we won't be able to do back home.
Still walked around the perimeter of Gyeongbokgung
This area was exceptionally well maintained, probably because it was near the Blue House.
Cheong Wa Dae
Finally we were here.
Police on the guard
Actually we saw many of them as we got nearer to Cheong Wa Dae.
After the Blue House, we had to walk back towards Gyeongbokgung. But with this kind of scenery, I was more than happy to do it again.
So much greenery, love this place.
Made a stop halfway at Samcheongdong for our very late lunch.
Samcheongdong
A small enclave of many cafes and restaurants. Another great find!!
That's us at the traffic mirror.
Restaurants and cafes on both sides of the street.
We stopped by here for some meat buns.
Ordered a tray of meat buns and another tray of vegetarian buns.
Just like xiao long bao
Cute little shop
European style cafe
Lavender at the roadside!!
Saw a real residential hanok
This girl suddenly walked up to the middle of the street and started singing and dancing. I was a bit late to capture the whole thing.
Flea market
Lovely scarves
Love the Korean style dresses
On our way back home, we had another surprise.
Lantern Festival
Road closed for Lantern Festival
See the crowd
Before we checked out those tents, we visited the Jogyesa Temple which is also located on the same road.
Jogyesa Temple
Very beautiful temple.
The photo didn't look sharp because of the net covering the decoration.
Three Buddha statues inside the temple.
Thousand of lanterns under the tent.
White lanterns
Saw many kids with their teacher.
A pretty little girl.
Lighting up candles.
Now we went back to the tents.
Paper lotus flower
Not sure what they were doing, they were seated like that for quite long. :P
I love their hanbok!!
We saw many foreigners participating in the activities rather than the locals.
Painting a lotus flower
Mask making
Drawing a paper fan
Lotus flower as hair accessories
We decided to go back to our apartment which was just one block a way to take a rest. But in the evening, we went out again to catch the Lantern Parade.
Found a great place next to the TV commentators to catch all the actions. :D
Colorful costumes and nice choreography
These dancers were ready for their turn.
TV crew just in front of us filming the parade.
The lantern parade began when the night fell.
We watched the parade until 8.30 pm and had our dinner nearby.
Dolsot bibimbap
Short rib beef soup (galbitang)
Don't you think Seoul is such a happening place to be? :)
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