Namsan Mountain & More

The rails were covered in these pretty heart-shaped locks.

Exploring Seoul was pretty cool. My brother and I spent most of our time in Korea walking, the only exception being rides to and from the airport.

N Seoul Tower

Seoul tower was just a short distance from our hotel in Myeongdong. This was the second place we visited outside of Myeongdong, the first being the old cathedral. The cold nipped at our fingers, so we bought some gloves and headed toward the tower.

There appeared to be a staircase leading to the very top of Nam mountain, where the tower was located. It was cold, so we decided to use the cable car. We bought two roundtrip tickets to the top and enjoyed the view and boy, was it gorgeous. The pictures don’t do it justice.

Below is a picture of a plaque explaining the history of Namsan Mountain. Looking closely, you can see that I am taller than my brother when looking at our reflections in the picture of this plaque.

Seoul Historic Monument №14 / Period Joseon: The beacon hill site in Mongmyeoksan (Mt.) (today’s Namsan (Mt.)) was also known as Gyeongbongsu — literally meaning “beacon hill in the capital”-as it is located in Seoul, which was the final destination of all the beacon fires lit to warn of an enemy invasion approaching the border areas.

This is my favorite photo from Namsan Mountain.

On the way to Gwanghwamun, we saw this mysterious building, Bosingak. I regret not taking photos of an ingenious street feature. Some sidewalks had lights that would light up green whenever it was safe to walk. If your head were buried in your phone, the green light coming from the ground would alert you that walking is safe.

Bosingak, the place of mystery

Walking around Seoul

Gwanghwamun & Gyeongbok Palace

These two are right next to each other, so we saw both in one evening. Gwanghwamun reminded me of the Dallas arts district. There were a few museums nearby, a theatre, and historical monuments.

Gwanghwamun Plaza

To our left was a big theatre building.

Admiral Yi-Sun-sin

Gyeongbok Palace

The little figurines on top of these buildings are named after characters from the famous book Journey to the West.

It was freezing that day.

After getting our tickets, we were approached by a student performing her tour guide duties with the YCC, a.k.a. Youth Culture Corps. The ycc guided tour is free, and the students are happy to show you around and answer your questions. So far, it was all fantastic.

Wow!! So many photos and I am still not finished yet! More to come soon.