Another full day walking the city of Seoul, however as it’s a National Holiday in Korea today, many public buildings were closed so we had to plan for outdoor activities where we could.
Our first stop was a return to Dongdaemun Design Plaza, as Michelle had missed seeing the area due to her day’s illness. On the way we passed an animal themed area, tigers on a wall and tiny puppy dogs in shop windows.
When we arrived at the plaza, thankfully it was all open and was reasonably quiet.
We went into the design store and museum and took in the exhibits which were on a huge scale and really eye catching.
After a couple of hours at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, we crossed the road to visit the Seoul City Wall walk.
The Seoul Wall was impressive and we were able to walk a 2k section up the side of the nearby hillside.
Quite quickly we were up on high with views across the city.
From the Seoul Wall we moved on to Ihwa Mural Village. This area was first occupied by refugees from the Korean War and was tagged a moon village due to elevated terrain. It’s become a tourist hot spot due to its quirky sculptures and murals. It’s also a pretty quaint historic area with real character. A definite must to visit.
The murals are diverse and have increased over the years reflecting modern culture.
We returned to the downtown and picked up Cheonggyecheon Stream, the urban renewal waterway and well used pathway that runs 10k through the city.
As midafternoon approached, we decided to stop at Kwangjang Market for some street food. We went for dumplings in a soup with kimchi. Great Korean cuisine with a spicy kick.
Post lunch we found time to wander around the rest of the large Kwangjang market selling seafood and other delicacies.
With the military procession due to start around 4pm, we wandered along the urban stream to its source and to Seoul City Hall, where we found a good spot to watch the Korean military parade.
As it’s a national holiday today the locals were out in large numbers to watch the spectacular parade of military hardware including planes, tanks and not forgetting the marching bands etc.
Seeing military might on this scale and up close was incredible and not something we have ever experienced before. It seems clear it’s as much about how they project their strength to North Korea.
Tomorrow we are off on a guided DMZ tour to learn about the history and current situation between North and South.
As a final note we are pleased to celebrate that we have surpassed 10,000 views of the blog since we started our adventures 10 months or so ago. Thank you for reading and keeping up to date with our tour and we hope to continue to encourage travel and entertain along the way.
@travellingwiththeateam 