We caved in today and had breakfast at McDonald's and got on the subway to head to the palace. There are several royal palaces in Seoul, but we had heard from our guide yesterday: "if you can go to just one, Changdeokgung is the one to see". We heeded her advice, especially since it was Thursday, the only day of the week where they open the Secret Garden to visitors. This is an area that only the royal family was allowed inside, and very beautiful.
The palace was last used in 1989, and since then has become a historic landmark, and it was just breathtaking. It is awesome to see something that is so old, and has been around for hundreds of years.
The garden was as great as advertised, with small ponds and pavillions all around the property. The fall colors were out in full force and made it even more special. You felt like you were walking out in the woods in the middle of nowhere, not in the middle of a city of 12 million people. The air quality is supposed to be the best in Seoul from all of the trees. We took so many pictures, Laura's camera actually crashed.
It was then on to Insadong, which is a more quiet shopping district than some of the loud street markets. We saw lots of artsy things for sale and managed to purchase a few souvenirs.
It was in one of the restaurants/tea houses that we were served the best Korean food that I have ever had. The waiter brought out two big wok-type cookers with their own burners and we had beef bulgogi (in the foreground of the picture) and bibimbap (in the back of the picture). There was a great seaweed soup and all of those side dishes that you see. We actually made a pretty good dent in the whole thing and were getting filled up before getting back on the subway to get ready to meet Owen.
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