Our final day in the Orient.  Our plane leaves ICN airport 6:45pm – we had the morning free to explore a bit as tourists.  My family was last over here in 2018 and so I had some ideas of what to show to Donny on a tight time frame.  It was his first visit to Seoul but now he wants to come back with his wife.

Sunrise out my window.

We went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the largest of 5 royal estates in Seoul.  The original buildings date from the 1400s; some are from the 1800s and some are more recent restorations/recreations.  During the Japanese occupation they destroyed many important Korean historical buildings.  Others were dismantled and relocated to personal estates in Japan.

We got there right when they opened and, for a while, essentially had the place to ourselves.

If you dress up in the rental Hanbok costumes, you get in for free.  Donny chose to pay.  Most are young women posing for fun, some are young couples.

But not all…

Real pumpkins!

Next we moved on to the Korean War Museum.. 36,000+ US boys lost their lives here from 1950-1953… and about 10x that number of ROK soliders.

Despite the low tech bombing methods of the Communist North.

Very impressive museum and well worth visiting and spending a full day.

Last meal in the East.. after all the unknowns we’ve poked into our mouths with chopsticks, it was fun to try a different dish.

Airplanes.. time to get these photos sent off and ready to board.