Monday is the day off for the tour companies in Seoul, so I decided to see the city by foot. I now have sore feet.
I started the day by deciding that I couldn’t possibly leave the city without having a run. The park where the Seoul Tower is situated is close to the hotel, so what better route could there be than to climb the hill to the tower itself? My Garmin log will duly show that the 2.5km up the hill was walked rather than ran… but I did run down afterwards! The view from the top of the hill was tremendous, but as I failed to take my camera, you will have to make do with a stock shot instead.
I then went back to the hotel to shower and attacked one of the major shopping streets in search of a tailor. (I need new shirts.) As usual, I succombed to sales pressure and bought a new suit as well (for which I have just had a second fitting in my hotel room). It and the shirts will be mailed to me by the weekend. Incredible.
The rest of the day I spent walking the length of a beautiful stretch of water in the centre of the twon – about 5km long. It used to be the place where locals went to wash clothes – and there are photos of them doing so on the walls by the side of the perfectly edged stream. Now it’s a wonderful park, set in a cutting beside busy streets. I walked in one direction at water level, occasionally using stepping stones to cross the stream. I walked back at street level, past busy busineses, each apparently ‘zoned’ so that similar enterprises were grouped together – tee shirt sellers, hat sellers, motorbikes, sign printers, tee shirt embroiderers, towels and blankets, electric lights, jeans, cameras – and finally, pets. A whole street of puppies. (But, I am delighted to report, no sign of a restaurant in Seoul selling dog… or perhaps I never found the dog restaurant zone.)
Hungry and thirsty I stopped at a cafe for a Kiwi fruit juice and a hamburger (more salad than meat, with KimChi pickled cabbage included). I was tickled to see that the business proudly shouts that it was established in 2008.
I am off this evening to a show – “Cooking” is billed as a mixture of music, dance and martial arts. I will share the review tomorrow.
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