After getting a decent night’s sleep - a start to catching up on the 14 hours, I hopped in the shower to get ready to visit the breakfast buffet in the hotel. First, the hotel room is very well equipped. There is a desk and chair, extensive coffee maker, mini bar, chaise lounge, fancy window shade and great view. The bathroom has one of those “magic windows” - that is literally what they call it. We have run into these in India and somewhere else - there is a window so that you can see into the bathroom from the bedroom. I’m not sure why that is desirable but it is definitely a thing in places. So there is a button in the bathroom called Magic Window that you press to make the window opaque. It lets some light into the bedroom but that’s all. I think my room in a Marriott in Delhi had blinds. Anyway, the bathroom has tub, big rain shower, 2 sinks and separate toilet with heated seats and many other options. (Katy - you’d appreciate the variety!)
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| A small portion of the breakfast buffet |
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| Gorgeous flowers in the lobby |
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| Spiral staircase |
I headed down to the 2nd floor to explore breakfast. The Conrad breakfast does not disappoint. The variety is amazing. It takes a while to wander through the options - healthy, egg station, noodles, salad, bread and pastries, children’s- a special selection of pastries in fun designs for kids, dumplings and more then juices, water, coffee. I got eggs, a cute little fat sausage, a pastry, guava juice, and coffee. I’ll be more adventurous tomorrow. Janet joined me a little while later and was equally impressed.
We needed to turn in paperwork (a confirmation of our travel plans and a medical form for the ship) to the two tour directors at our hotel. They were going to be available between 10 to 12 and 2 to 4. Since we were meeting Nina and Jim at noon to go to the Museum of Korea, we wanted to do this close to 10. We found them easily in the lobby. We are assigned to Johanna who has been a tour director with Tauck for 21 years. Tauck has had the Japan portion of this trip for a while but the Korean part is a new addition and apparently last week’s tour was the first so we are just the 2nd. The first trip went from Tokyo westbound, our’s is from Seoul eastbound and they’ll have one more westbound trip and then the ship goes to another itinerary.
Nina and Jim came over to the Conrad and we took off for the English language tour that Nina had reserved for us ahead of time at the museum. We took an Uber/taxi. They seem to co-brand many of the taxis with Uber and it is easy and inexpensive. The grounds of the museum were impressive with a large mirror pond and impressive buildings and landscaping. We found out during the tour that is was just built in 2004. There were loads of azaleas in many colors bursting in bloom as well as some other flowering trees and lots of Japanese maples.
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| Leading up to the museum entrance |
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| Mirror pond |
We weren’t quite sure where to meet our guide but with a bit of back and forth, we finally met up with her and another group of 4. The guide did an excellent job of showing us the critical parts of the museum over the next 2 hours. The museum has 3 floors partly to fit in a stone pagoda tower from Gyeongcheonsa Temple that had been moved by the Japanese who cut it into many pieces causing cracks along the way. The tower is 10 stories - not equivalent to 10 full floors but rather 3. It is made of marble so they really wanted it inside as the elements have not been kind to the stone over the years.
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| Remarkable folding map |
We started at a wonderful map of the whole of Korea done in the 1800s. It is a recent exhibit and covers much of the wall. It was made so that it folds up into multiple books. In theory, you could fold it up and stick it in your saddle bag and take off! Then we went into the Prehistoric area and the development of metal tools. The guide told us related myths of the creation of Korea as we went. There were bronze bowls, carved roof designs, metal protections for horses and gold. Korea was originally made up of multiple kingdoms and one of the smallest started the process of combining with others since they had great wealth due to a large supply of gold found in their mountains. We then saw the 5 iron Buddhas each with a different purpose. Then we learned about the history of the giant bell - Bronze Bell of Cheonheungsa Temple. It is from the Goryeo dynasty in 1010. There was a great digital depiction of the bell and the sound it makes as it reverberates. We sat and watched the video and the gong sends shivers down your spine and continues for some time. Another area had a collection of celadon pieces. A no speaking room held two examples of buddhas known as the Thinker who is shown with a slight smile. We didn’t see everything in 2 hours but did get a good feel for the history of the country and the many things seen as treasures.
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| Queen’s gold crown |
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| 10 story pagoda inside museum |
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| One of the iron Buddhas |
We made a quick trip to the gift shop - crowded but with all sorts of intriguing items. After another quick stop to get something to drink - a bottle of carbonated cherry soda ordered via a screen (it seems as if all food is ordered this way except in sit down restaurants) - we went out to find a taxi back to the hotel. It was a beautiful afternoon and as we drove back, we passed the park that runs along the river near the hotel. It was full of people picnicking and enjoying the afternoon. We had our hotel group welcome reception and dinner at 6 so we got ready for that.
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| Bronze bell |
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| Digital image of bronze bell |
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| Celadon ever |
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| The Thinker |
Many of the ladies were dressed up but I didn’t bring a dress (don’t think I own one at the moment) but the men were more casually attired in general. There was a nice spread of appetizers and an open bar. I saw the couple from Austin with whom I had chatted as we traveled from the airport on Saturday. Janet and I ended up sitting with them for dinner. She is a retired environmental lawyer and was fun to talk with. The dinner was 4 courses of great food but no Korean dishes. We did have some local entertainment between the main course and dessert. A woman in traditional dress played what I think was a 12 string instrument and a man also in traditional dress played an instrument similar to a flute but wooden a bit larger.
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| 12 string instrument |
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| Flute like instrument |
Our two tour directors said a few words of welcome and gave us instructions for meeting up tomorrow. We are due at the number 1 palace in time to see the changing of the guard.
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