After the change of the guard, Hubby and I went through the gates of the palace and discovered that there would be a free English speaking tour in five minutes. I picked up a brochure on the palace and began reading it while we waited. It was strange to see the tall buildings of the city looming right outside of the palace walls. Looking the other direction it was cool to see how the palace roof was built to follow the line of the mountain behind it. The early Koreans believed that their architecture should flow with nature.
It was a freezing cold day and it was very windy so I think our tour guide cut the tour slightly short but it was still informative. We learned many interesting facts about the palace, Korea's history, and the kings who had lived/ruled there.
The palace itself was very colorful and elaborate. There were figures that I would call gargoyles everywhere to ward off evil spirits and there were small figures on the eves of every roof top. There were dragons painted onto the ceilings and pottery on display inside the rooms.
The palace had an elaborate chimney system to heat it and seemed very architecturally advanced for the time period. We also were able to see a rounded sundial that was invented under the rule of King Sejong. It is supposedly much more accurate than a flat sundial. Our tour guide read the time for us and it turned out to be about 20 minutes different from the time according to our watches. She told us that the sundial is actually more accurate for the actual time in Korea according to the sun but that Korea conformed to the western time zones and that is where the 20 minutes were lost. King Sejong also invented a water clock so that he could tell time on cloudy days or when it was raining. We didn't get to see it but it seems like he was pretty smart!
The back part of the palace grounds has a beautiful garden but since we were there in the winter everything was brown. Hubby was able to go when the weather was nicer and things were still green. It was still pretty though even in winter. It must be very beautiful in summer. Over the back wall you can see a blue roofed building. We were told that it is the Blue House where the Korean president lives.
After walking around for a bit after our tour and having a quick lunch we went to the museum next door to the palace and walked around learning about Korean culture. It was interesting and it gave us a chance to warm up!
Afterwards we visited a small courtyard outside of the museum that had statues representing the Korean new year. I was born in the year of the tiger. I was excited to find this out because I love tigers. My mom was born in the year of the dog which I find hilarious because she hates dogs! Hubby was born in the year of the ox. When were you born?
When we finished looking at everything, Hubby took me a few blocks away to a market area where we shopped for souvenirs. There was so much to look at and there were a lot of interesting things for sale although some seemed over priced. We walked around and had a good time exploring the shops until we found a couple of things to buy and headed back to the train for the trip back to Hubby's post.
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