Tuesday, 4/1

Busy day today - I don't think any of us realized just how hard we went, or how far we walked until we got back to the hotel around 4. And couldn't move... I think it took Andrew all of 3 minutes to fall sound asleep, which is a sure sign that he's exhausted.

Fingers crossed, I think we're finally over the worst of the jet lag. Everyone slept until about 5:30 this morning, which isn't bad considering we fell asleep before 9 the night before.

Can you find the human here:

A little view from the back of our hotel - this is the way we sometimes walk to the subway station. It's also the way we usually come back. Down to the subway, up to the hotel. This is about half the hill - it's a bit too steep to get it all in one photo. It shouldn't be a surprise that our feet hurt, and our legs are getting quite the workout. :)
We made a visit to Deoksugung Palace today - it's the last palace that an emporer of Korea lived (and died) in. Our guidebook said that there was a changing of the guard ceremony every day, but we didn't see it. Ah well, it was lovely to visit anyway. There weren't many people around when we got there, so Andrew could run wild. (And he did.)

The throne room:

One of the fun stone fountains on the grounds:
The three of us, not in front of anything in particular:
After the palace, we walked down to the Kyobo bookstore. It's huge - and in the basement of an office building. It's really amazing how they fit things in here - there's all kinds of things like the bookstore in the basement, or little side streets. Heck, we find something new every time we walk to and from the subway, and it's only about a quarter mile away! Anyway, we shopped there for a bit, and had a nice lunch.

After lunch, we went to InsaDong - a cool artsy type market. Lots of pottery, embroidery, and lacquer work. Beautiful items. We picked up a number of souvenirs here. ;)

We meet Alex again tomorrow, and need to do a bit more shopping. We might fit in another palace as well (one that was closed today) - we'll see how we feel in the morning. Lots of packing to do too, as we leave fairly early on Thursday. Well, our flight leaves around 10:15, but we'll need to leave the agency by 7:30 to get to the airport (about an hour away). Not sure how long we'll need to be at the agency, so tomorrow we'll figure out what time we need to leave the hotel. Early-ish, though.

Thanks so much to everyone sharing our journey! :)