Korea: Namsan tower & shopping at Shinsegae (Day 25)

on top platform of Namsan tower

Saturday, 6th June 2015

Today we will visit the Namsan tower, although it's not really clear weather we hope to have a reasonable view when up on the platform. We take the cable car up to the 1st platform. A lot of activity there; food, places to sit, make selfies, artificial trees loaded with 'love padlocks', etc. We take the elevator up to the platform where you can walk around and see the city at your feet.

frying fish early in the morning in 'our alley' near the Rian hotel, which we always have to cross to go to the subway.

folklore

it's all about love ^-^

Namsan tower from the 1st platform

a long way from home

not so far from home

When back on the ground we decide to go shopping at Shinsegae Warehouse Store, which is a big one and very posh. They have all the famous couturier clothes, make-up, perfumes, all the European brands espresso machines, pottery, pans, you name it they got it; it's amazing. Gave us the 'KDW feeling'.

There's of course vallet parking, young good looking boys in beige trousers with red ties are waiting for the rich and beautiful.

We visit he restaurant on one of the top floors which has a rooftop garden with fountains. Parents take there children to play there. Funny to see Korean children don't like water that much as none of them is playing with water in the fountain.

streetlife

here the poster is till intact, but a few minutes later the guys distroyed the enormous poster to make way for a new advertisement

demo of WMF non-stick frying pan

the roof garden

'our bar', which is near our hotel

Korea: back to Gagnam (Galleria) & Seoul (hotel Rian) - 'carless' (Day 24)

fetching our car from the 'car elevator of the hotel' - fun

Friday, 5th June 2015

Today we will get back to Seoul and return our rental car. We will stay in Soeul till Sunday nite when our return flight to Amsterdam is planned.

We are a bit melancholic coz it feels our endless holiday is gonna end soon.

We decide to make some photos of things we see when travelling Korea and that became 'normal' to us.  

We visited the Galleria Department store in Gagnam to have lunch at Gourmet 494, which is situated in the basement of the West building of the super luxury store complex of Galleria.

As we had no idea where to park our car we entered a garage as a boy was beckoning us. Ahum, this was the garage, with valet parking service, of the Tiffany & Co. part of the Galleria. We walked along corridors with diamond rings, fancy couturier bags etc. and found .... yeah the Gourmet 494.

Peter driving in the chaos of Seoul, he has adjusted well to the Korean traffic and has fun 

When we left the garage of The Galleria we were asked by a kind lady of Tiffany's if we had a purchase ticket of something we had bought. We didn't ... no problem we had to pay WON 2000 (= EUR 1,60) now that's great parking. 

traffic jam on the bridge into the other (old) part of Seoul 

Seoul traffic 

beer in 'our bar on the corner' & a face mask (MERS virus around atm)

We revisited the Japanese restaurant near our hotel and ordered our fav dish: tuna salad and sake. Sooooo yummy

Korea Blue Monday at Gangnam (Day 6)

the streets of Gangnam

Monday, 18 May 2015
Wasn't a super day, so I stick to the photos shown here: Gagnam.
All places we wanted to visit were closed due to redecoration or coz of some kind of Donation whatever event. Blerghhh.

Soo, after walking too many kilometers for nothing we had an extensive lunch with lots of sashimi and sushi AND relaxed at our hotel room, which felt good. 
Tomorrow is another busy day.

Samsung building

Samsung store: soo much fun the 3D glasses, wow those games argthhh super,  loved it!

afterwards sushi and sashimi for lunch/dinner whatever :-)

Korea: Dongdaemun, Gwangjang Food Market, National Museum of Korea (Day 5)

shoes for Theo ...

Day 5: Sunday 17 May 2015

Markets, Design and the history of Korea.

stuff on Dongdaemun area (sneakers and cheap shoes starting at 8 EUR)   

Good Morning City building where the Avis office is where we have to fetch our rental car Wednesday. Not easy to find; hidden in the cellar behind a sauna.

'selfie made in the 'mirror'of the elevator of the Doosan building. 

Too cute (notice how fast I adapted the Korean way girls pose)

Dongdaemun Design Plaza with Design shops and a Museum, 

the latter unfortunately was closed due to redesigning

the winding steep corridor of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza

an installation in the Hyundai part of the Plaza

 design stuff

'sales women' at the small 'home made design' fair 

at the exit of the Design Plaza

**

After all that design we headed to the Gwangjang food market. A lively place where it's not easy to choose from all that's offered. 

arghhh former piggy parts

various shops around the central foodmarket

After lunch we jumped on the subway heading for the National Museum of Korea, which is situated near the Han river in the Yongsan district. It's a rather new and very large building. It reminded us of the airport, same style. It was interesting to 'walk through' the Korean history. We realised we know so little of the history of this part of the world.

the pagoda in the central hall of the musuem

Some of the art we liked: 

the folding screen 'Birds and Flowers' is from the early 20th century  

the white marble sculpture 'Woman' is by Hinago Jitsuzo and made around 1931

it's a huge place indeed this museum