Seoul, Korea

At midnight on February 11th we took off on Korean Airlines heading for home.

We had a long layover in Seoul and so took advantage of that tie to see some sights.

First, and most important was the opportunity to go to the Seoul Korea Temple.

We packed our backpacks with clothes to be able to change into for the temple.

We were able to catch a taxi outside the Icheon airport and we drove into Seoul to get to the weather in Southeast Asia.  The weather in Korea is very different than Southeast Asia.  It was down into the 30's and we did not have winter clothing.  Luckily we had our sweatshirts from the plane ride (because I always get cold on long plane rides) and that really helped.  The temple was about 50 minutes from the airport and our driver did not speak much English so we just rode along looking at the sights.

We found the temple tucked back in an area where it was hidden.  It was only when we got really close that we could see the angel Moroni on top and knew we had arrived.  We were a little early so we took some pictures on the outside.

It was a nice session.  We had headsets to help us through.

The Seoul, Korea Tempe is our 92nd temple.  

We are on track to get to our 100th temple by the end of the year.

After the session we walked down the street to find some food.  I had previously talked with Allie Beckett who had served her mission there of what to eat and do while we were there.  We just had the afternoon so we were hoping to find a Korean BBQ place.  The place we were directed to by someone at the temple ended up being like a lunchroom so we passed on that.

We just walked around until we found a fried chicken place.  Allie had mentioned the Koreans love their fried chicken.  Well, we did find a place and the food, We both felt it was just so so.  

Allie mentioned that there are a lot of bakeries around so I had spotted a bakery on our way to lunch so after lunch we headed back that way.  We enjoyed our dessert!

Looking at this picture makes me want to have a bite.

After dessert we knew we wanted to go see the Changgeyonggong Palace.

On the way we passed the Geyonbokgung Palace as we were driving by.

Our über driver waited for us as we visited the palace.

It was built in the year 1418 and is designated as a world UNESCO heritage sight.

I read that if you dress up in the traditional hanbok clothing you can get in free.

We did not do this but did see people who did.

Kinda fun!

                                                        This is the entrance to the palace.

This is the inside court area

This is the King's throne.

I like the cool doors.

 It was really interesting to see this sight.  It is unlike anything we have seen before.

After our visit to the palace we got back with our UBER and made the trek back to the airport.  We were tired from our overnight flight and busy day so we slept most of the time.  We both woke ourselves up a couple of times snoring and had a good laugh afterward thinking we gave our UBER driver something to smile about. Haha!

Our flight left that evening and we flew 11 hours into LA.  When we got there it was the same morning as it had been in Seoul.  With the international date line we flew "back in time" to get back on the same day we left.  We were very happy to arrive in SLC where Gary picked us up and took us HOME! 

We had been on:

18 ride shares, 13 flights, 12 boat rides, 9 E-Trikes, 4 Temples, 4 Marriotts, 3 countries, 2 villas, 

and 1 PHENOMENAL TRIP!  It was a trip for the books!  We were most impressed with the people.  We met SO MANY good people!  They were so kind and took very good care of us!  It is now just a memory but we will always remember with great fondness our time in this area of the world!