Results tagged “Palaces” from East Asia 2017
Had a bit of a broken night's sleep on account of not being able to breathe.
At 6:20 the alarm went off to wake up.
Arrival in Incheon was pretty boring. I missed coming under the bridge, but then we docked at a new terminal area in the middle of nowhere (they haven't even built the terminal yet). Downloaded the GPS log since Busan.
Had some breakfast at Kings Court around 8:00.
At 8:45 we went into the Royal Court Theatre to check in to our tour. Where we then had to wait and wait and wait. This time the Korean immigrations had setup laptops in the Queens Room to process everyone. So we had to collect our passports, walk past the temperature sensor, then get our passports stamped. Then we dropped off our passports and got a shore card. They had a truck setup outside with a portable gangway, but it was *very* steep getting up it. We could have really just gone straight off the ship onto the wharf, rather than up and over, but apparently the tides change quite a lot and they were going to have to rearrange things during the day. It was after 10:00 before our coach left the wharf.
So then it was the really long drive into Seoul.
Our first stop was the National Museum. We lasted about five minutes with the crowds and our tour guide before we went off and wandered the place on our own. Sure we probably missed out on hearing about some things in more detail, but we did get a nice long look at all the celadon (a green glazed ceramic), and an amazing exhibition of items recovered in 1975 from a shipwreck.
Entrance of the National Museum of Korea
Gold Crown and Girdle, National Treasure #191 and #192
Gold Crown Ornament, National Treasure #630
Ten Story Pagoda, National Treasure #86
Dragon shaped ewer celadon, National Treasure #61
Ewer celadon
Celadon plate
Objects from the Sinan shipwreck
Objects from the Sinan shipwreck
Coins from the Sinan shipwreck
Then it was off to lunch at a place in the city. There was about fifteen different courses!! It was pretty insane. And I was having fun until I was eating all the green vegetables in a cold "porridge" when I got a huge slice of raw green chili. My mouth exploded. I should have spat it out, but I was on a table full of strangers. So that was super painful (I was in tears) and kinda ruined the rest of the meal. And our tour guide didn't seem to understand that people need to use the bathroom, and so we had to try and find it ourselves when we should have been going out to get back on the coach.
Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara
Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara. That green chili sunk in with the rest of the vegetables and my mouth exploded when I ate it :(
Han Jeongsik traditional lunch at Jinjinbara
After lunch it started raining. Yay. We went to Bukchon village next, a line of houses built in the 1930s by a dude who wanted to preserve houses built in traditional Korean style. But it's a residential street and I think the people that live there hate the fact that it's a huge tourist destination.
Sungnyemun Gate
Bukchon Hanok Village
Bukchon Hanok Village
Bukchon Hanok Village
Bukchon Hanok Village
Traditional dress store
Girls in traditional dress
Still raining. We drove past the presidential "blue house" and got one or two photos through foggy and rain-smeared windows.
The Blue House
Then into the royal palace next door. Still raining on and off. Had a decent wander around there which was pretty cool.
Gwanghwamun Gate
Heungnyemun Gate
Geunjeongjeon hall
Inside Geunjeongjeon hall
Courtyard of Geunjeongjeon hall and Bukhansan Mountain
Gargoyle at Geunjeongjeon hall
Covered walkway on west side of Geunjeongjeon hall
Covered walkway on west side of Geunjeongjeon hall
Gyeonghoeru pavilion
Bukhansan Mountain
Locals in traditional dress
Decorative roof at Gyeongbokgung Palace
Gangnyeongjeon hall
Inside Gangnyeongjeon hall
Locals in traditional dress
Looking towards Gwanghwamun Gate from Heungnyemun Gate
Gargoyle at Gyeongbokgung Palace
Asian women need instructions on how to use the toilets
Girls toilets at Gyeongbokgung Palace
So a reasonably decent tour. Shame about the weather.
Finally a very long drive back to the ship.
Banghwa Bridge
Queen Mary 2 docked at Incheon Port International Passenger Terminal
Queen Mary 2 docked at Incheon Port International Passenger Terminal
Incheon Bridge, connecting Yeongjong Island and the mainland of Incheon
Sunset aboard the Queen Mary 2
Queen Mary 2 bell
19:30 the usual pub for drinks/music/trivia (we got 16/20 this time - would have gotten a couple more if we'd joined with the table that marked ours - they knew two that we didn't heh). Really must join ranks with some English people as the questions do tend to be a bit British-centric.
When we got to dinner we found two new people on our table (Bruce and Maria from Sydney). They'd been on board since Sydney and were going all the way to Southampton. But they kept on being at a table by themselves and asked to join someone else. We'd had two seats free since Virginia and Bob got off in Shanghai so that was quite nice. Stu had chicken consomme, Korean chicken and chocolate volcano cake. I had smoked duck, penne, and wasn't going to have dessert because I was so full, but got tempted by the key lime pie heh.
I really feel like we don't belong on this cruise. Bruce and David spent most of the evening talking about travelling business class and comparing airlines, and the sizes of their apartments. Bruce and Maria live in one of the toasters in Circular Quay, and at one point I think I overheard it was 192 square metres (although only heard a snatch of that conversation I could be wrong). Various British couples we've met have summer homes in Europe. We're too young and not rich enough to belong on this cruise...