Park-a-palooza!

What a wonderful weekend we just had! It was unseasonably warm (mid-20's!) on Saturday, so along with about 10 million (well maybe just a couple) Seoulites we decided to go to see the cherry blossoms at Yeouido Park. This park is located on a large island in the Han River, where it cuts a swath of green through the otherwise sea of corporate headquarters, banks and other skyscrapers that blanket the island.

The park is nice: lots of trees, grassy areas, ponds and creeks, pagodas, a huge public plaza, and lots more. It is ringed by busy walking and biking paths (you can rent bicycles of all shapes and sizes). The best part of the park for our girls was the childrens' play ground, of course! Since the park was hosting the cherry blossom festival this weekend, we were surprised to find relatiely few cherry trees actually in the park. We found the prettiest walk was along the roadway between the subway and park entrance, where blossom-choked branches formed a dazzling canopy over the sidewalk. Cherry blossom season was nearing an end however, as blizzards of pinky white petals rained down on us with every gust of wind. We had fun playing in the drifts of petals! Here are a couple photos, but they don't do it justice.


Here are more shots of Yeouido Park and its attractions.



This is a statue of King Sejong the Great, who commissioned the creation of hangul, the Korea alphabet in the 15th century. And here are Jin and Lili "reading" about him.


The park has a number of barefoot pathways. Walking on these in bare- or sock-feet is supposed to be good for you. I don't think our intrepid tourists would agree! The blossoming spirea did make everyone feel better though.


We enjoyed the traditional picnic lunch of gimbap on a grassy patch in the shade of a bamboo grove. And it wouldn't be a park without the playground! Check out the interesting 2-pole slide!



Sunday wasn't quite so warm or sunny, but still nice at about 20 degrees. So we thought we'd brave the crowds and try another park. This time we went to the Seoul Forest Park, located few kilometeres east of our place, in Seongdong-gu district of Seoul. The park was recently developed in a former royal hunting forest. In addition to the young forest (the park is only a few years old) it has a number of small lakes, a wildlife area with deer you can feed, botanical garden, insect garden/museum, water park, sports park and of course a playground. This playground was the biggest and best yet. Two thumbs up from our critics!

Here are Jin and Deb walking along the walk- and bike-path that runs along the Han River through the city. The subway tracks we came on are on the left, with the Eungbong Station in the background. And here is a shot of the girls looking over the Han River.


We entered the park on an elevated walkway that overloked the forest and wildflife area. There were lots of deer there, mostly spotted Formosa Sika Deer and the tiny fanged Korean Water Deer.


Here are Lili and Deb feeding them special deer food. Check out the fangs on the little guy.

Can you spot Deb and Lili in the rainforest? And look who's happy we found the playground.

The playground is huge here!

This is something we dubbed "meshman". It is a giant mesh statue that kids can climb inside of - just the lower part. Too cool!

The Splash Fountain in the Waterpark was also a big hit. The water jets would pulsate at random, from off to full in seconds, catching people by surprise, much to the crowds's delight.



We've got to come back to this park! Especially when it gets really hot in the middle of summer. We'll bring spare clothes then too....just in case....

Well that's our park-a-palooza story. Today (Monday) it was back the routine: girls to school, Deb and I to the store. Jin and Lili are liking school a lot. I'll get them to tell you about it in a future post. And I have to get Deb to write a post about shopping here too.

Good-night all!

Derek, Deb, Jin and Lili

p.s. check out the sidebar for some new website links you may find interest. I also fixed the clock gadget, so it should be right now.