Asia Trip - Day 1 and 2 - Seoul, Korea

Mon

9

UA #4767 6:07am RIC – IAD 7:01am (54 min) KoreanAirLines #094 11:50am IAD –

The alarm went off at 3:45 am. Gosh it's early. The hotel shuttle brings us to the airport at 4:30. That's why we decided it was not a good time for Sarah or Wade to bring us considering the baby and that they are both working.
The flight left RIC on time and it wasn't even half an hour before we landed in IAD.
Bye-bye Richmond.

We are now sitting in a United Airlines lounge in Washington Dulles and wait until it's time for the next flight.

We probably had two hours in the lounge which is always nice. James had vouchers for that. Then we went over to the gate. When it was finally time to queue for boarding there were four signs to line behind and a bit of chaos. Our seats were In row 50, only 4 rows from the back of the plane. All went smoothly though.

Tue

10

Arrive - 4:30pm 2/10 ICN Seoul, South Korea (14 hr 40 min) 1 of 1 night Pacific Hotel 2, Toegye-ro 20-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, 100-042, South Korea +8227777811

I was surprised how much legroom there was considering that it was Korean Airlines and Asian people are mostly not very tall. The rows were 3, 3 and 3 seats. James and I had the aisle seats in the middle hoping that the one between us was empty. No, unfortunately it was not. A young chinese girl joined us and I would like to name her "yo yo". I gave up counting how often she made us get up to let her out ... and back in ... mainly me. But may be that was good for me, ha-ha. Otherwise, considering it was non-stop 14 1/2 hours it was all pretty good.

We each managed to watch two movies and even the same ones. Otherwise I like to have the flight tracker on. Crossing the date line here.

Landed. There was a nice mural on the outside of our plane but this picture is the best I could do. As you can see though it's not the best of weather. Still winter here of course.

James asked at the info how we would get to our hotel and the lady was most helpful. Bus 6015. James bought the tickets while I waited with the suitcases in the queue.

Now sitting in the bus ready to go.

Typical big city traffic. Standing still here. It took about 1 1/2 hours but it was interesting to watch and get an impression. Signs seem to be all written Korean and Western style.

We were lucky that the stop where we had to get off was also the end of the route so we didn't have to worry.

Don't you love a man with confidence. James "knew" that the hotel was close and right away crossed the street and headed around the first corner. My feeling: shouldn't we ask somebody? James turns, points up and asked if I like this.
Yup, there is our hotel!
We are in the Myungdong area of town.
I should have google on it at home ... it was listed several times at the 9th most expensive shopping street in the world. Good things I don't need anything.

(Btw, we are doing this stopover on our own because we didn't want to do a 14 1/2 hour flight immediately followed by another 6 1/2 hour flight to Yangon.)

Long day but all went well!

The room is nice. More or less as all hotel rooms are but this is new for me. Surprise when you use the toilet. The seat is heated!

We settle and contemplate to go out or just have a light dinner at the hotel. It's cold outside and we are tired. The restaurant has a limited menu but good enough. I have typical Korean oxtail soup. Had to try it. It could do with seasoning.

Sculptures in the lobby. I could be pretty sure that they are from the same artist as a certain one in the Singapore botanical garden but the title and name is not written with our letters.

And now it's lights out early. We just can't keep our eyes open.

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On the way

Sun

Feb 8

Being taken by Sarah or Wade to: 1 night in Best Western Plus near the Richmond Airport

 

I hope to blog again about our adventure. Internet will be so-so I expect. I prepared drafts for every day hoping it will be helpful. The box in the beginning is cut and pasted from our itinerary.

 

Sunday afternoon: packing, packing, packing. We are ready in good time though. Sarah had to work but she comes at about 5 pm and brings us to the hotel close to the airport. They had quite a day because they had two showings in the morning and open house in the afternoon. When we were in church Wade had brought Caleb over to our place again to take his nap.

After we had said good-bye to Sarah and checked into our room we walked not far to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. Happy hour!

We raised our glasses to "The Lord's beautiful world"! I am excited now. We are on the way and can't change if we forgot something. Time to relax!

 

 

Footnote: the children have an offer on their house. Actually two we learned Monday morning. Keeping our fingers crossed!

 

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Things are happening

Yes, soon we are leaving on our trip. We better prepare. Here our daily ration of Marmite. It seems that mosquitos don't like to bite you. The British have experience with that.

 

 

But other things are happening. Sarah and Wade Have put their house on the market. Their dogs Jimmy and Schatzi went to Wade's parents. We got Edy the cat.

 

 

Needy Edy likes loving. I didn't get much accomplished in the evenings.

 

 

 

We had to go shopping for our trip though. We are visiting an Elementary school sponsored by OAT Overseas Adventure Travel and have two home-hosted luncheons. We needed gifts! It is not easy to find "something Richmond" or "something Virginia". We were surprised. After several stops we finally were at the right place. But here I almost ended up being a thief.

Yes, a thief. For the child we sponsor in Thailand we wanted a t-shirt. Found it. After selecting the color and size I flung it over my shoulder and looked for the other gifts. Since I had already a scarf around I totally forgot about it. James paid and we happily left now finally having everything. A couple miles down the road in the car it suddenly scooted down and into my lap. Oh my! How embarrassing. I found the receipt and called Eddy who was very understanding and laughed. I gave him a credit card number and he said not to worry. He said it was an accident to which I replied "yes, or I would not have called".

 

 

Because of house showings Sarah and family had to vacate their house sometimes. This can be difficult especially when it is Caleb's nap time. Well, there is a baby bed at our house!

But first a nice little walk in the neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

Sunday. Church in the morning. Then it is time to pack. My favorite "hiking sandals". Oh no. I never had turned them over. I should have.

 

 

 

Oh well. They are going anyway. And then they will stay somewhere over there and not come back.

 

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Exploring

Saturday January 31

The weather was just too nice not to go for a walk. James thought we should walk somewhere a little more exciting then in the neighborhood. We drove down to the river and parked near the bridge to Belle Isle.
Over the bridge and then along the river. Lots of people where out and about. I had fun taking pictures. Since we had each started our pedometers we were each teasing the other when we stopped to look at something or take pictures for reducing the speed average.

I like my pictures!

On the way back over the bridge we were stopped by somebody (an older gentleman) telling us about huge stone carvings he had found on Belle Isle which prove the existence of people here before the ice age. He told us what to google to read more about it but that has to wait for some other time. He was actually very interesting.
Back from the Island we thought the walk was too short and continued towards Browns Island. James showed me the "other end" of the Pipe Trail. I have walked there several times but always from the end with the ladder, halfway and turning around.

This end doesn't have the railing on both sides. It's fun going the whole way.

I had fun with the shadows.

Ha-ha, here is a selfie, proof that I was there too.

The Pipe Trail under the railroad trestle.

Back to where we parked along the old warehouses, now apartments. Quite like the graffiti.

James (River) is that you I smell

Statue of a boatman next to the canal.

Yup, really messed up the average. It was a very nice walk.

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Random

January 23

When Helen or Sarah call and ask "what are you doing" or "you have plans today" it's difficult to answer. This and that! Trying to tie loose ends. Get ready for our trip. Take care of things which need to be done for the church, for the quilt group etc.

Being finished with a project, checking off an UFO, that's a good feeling. Done with a quilt and James is bringing it to the post office!

Sunday 25
After church we go with some friends for lunch. Can't resist taking a photo of my friend taking a photo. Julie is a wonderful photographer. I bet this is going to be my birthday card, ha-ha.

Lots of calories in those sticky buns. Good idea to go for a fast walk in the neighborhood. Actually, you have to take advantage when the weather is nice. It's great that usually one of us motivates the other.

Two days later

Lucky we didn't get anything like the people north of us. The news was/are full of it.

Friday 30th
Sarah and Wade are trying to get their house ready to sell. We helped out having Caleb for a few hours. It's snack time. Papa shared a "papa-cookie". Last piece disappeared.

All gone.

No more?

Papa is unpacking another.

Saturday
Got the news (and photos) that the parcel has arrived. Now I can show the quilt. You can read about it HERE!

I created a blog site just for "lace and quilts" for my friends who are interested in that. It will be another UFO (un-finished object) for a while until it is up-to-date. Its just like the separate blog site for Chrismons that most of the info is in one place. You can go to either by clicking on the tab on top of this site. Yeah, me and my hobbies.

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