I want to apologize upfront for delaying so long between posts. Honestly, Mike and Tina were keeping us so entertained in Seoul, I didn't have time! So, never fear, the next few days will be full of posts about our wonderful trip.
A quick timeline about the trip. Drew flew into Seoul last Sun afternoon, so that he could be at work in the Seoul office Monday morning. He had to work all week long, so really he only had a few nights and then the following weekend to see the city. I flew in the next afternoon, so Monday was really just a travel day for me and a work day for Drew. So we'll skip Monday. But the rest of the week, I had a blast galavanting around with Mrs. Tina, and then all four of us hung out that weekend.
On Tues, Tina and I first went to the Korean War Museum. I honestly knew next to nothing about that war, so there was lots to learn. The museum was very well done, way better than all of the museums I saw in KL. The inside was full of memorabilia, movies, battle reenactments, timelines, etc. Below is a statue outside of the museum.
The museum itself.
I don't think I knew how substantial of a role the U.S. played in turning the tide of that war. North Korea had South Korea cornered in a city at the southeast part of the peninsula called Pusan. They were screwed essentially. Then the UN (majority of which were US troops) had an amphibious landing at Inchon (which is where the International Airport is now) and cut off the North Korean troops, eventually driving them back to the purple line you see on the map below. North Korea retaliated until they got back to where everything started in the first place, the 38th parallel. At the end, the two sides only signed a cease fire, not a peace agreement, so technically the two sides are still at war. Yikes! But, good job US troops for keeping democracy alive.
Actually, both of my grandfathers fought in this war. My Grandpa Mac (dad's side) was stationed in Chuncheon, about 2 hours east of Seoul. He must have been stationed there after the UN landing at Inchon. He was a radio coordinator, relaying airplane scouting intelligence to the missile launchers on the ground, telling them where to shoot. "Fire ze missile!" My Grandpa Bloch (mom's side) was stationed in Tuley Greenland, also a radio guy, most likely helping the giant navy ships communicate as they made the journey to Korea. From what I just said, it sounds like he should have been stationed in Hawaii, not Greenland, so really I'm not sure what he did there.
Another cool story about all of this is that my Dad has been to Seoul on business before. His company was helping make the Seoul city buses run on compressed natural gas instead of diesel. Look! The buses are still working, 10ish years later! I rode on them several times! The yellow CNG lettering stands for compressed natural gas. My dad actually went to Chuncheon, also for business, when he was here. So, there have now been three generations of McDaniels in South Korea for one reason or another over the last 65 years. Pretty cool huh!
The picture above and the next two are from outside the War Museum. They had a garden filled with all sorts of military machines. Every type of tank you can think of. 10 different airplanes, from single prop planes, to giant bombers. They had 15 different helicopters, amphibious crafts, everything! It really was an amazing collection. Im not sure how they all tied to the Korean War, as several things were clearly not from the era. But, it was cool to see so many military machines in one place.
After the War Museum, Tina and I went to the first of three palaces I saw during my week in Seoul. All of these palaces were from the last dynasty in Korea, called the Joseon Dynasty which was in power from the 1390's to the 1900's. This first palace is very much in the center of the city, so it's very small compared to the others. But, we got to see a changing of the guard ceremony which was awesome. Kind of like a mini parade, and the guards were taking it VERY seriously.
The gate to the palace grounds.
A giant drum that sounded like the drums of Moria. Gave me shivers.
The back side of the main throne room. All of the palaces have this exact same architecture and elaborate painting. Lots of tile roofs, wooden screens, elegant curves, and geometric patterns. Pictures inside of this thrones room were not allowed.
The guards were all very serious; they never smiled. But this guy almost has a hint of a grin I think...
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