Seonyudo Island Park - lazy weekend

This weekend was a pretty low activity one for us. Jin had a bit of a gastro-bug on Friday that lingered into Saturday, so Lili and Daddy went to a neat island park called Seonyudo. Today was a lazy rainy Sunday, so after a late breakfast of pastries from the neighbourhood Paris Baguette we subwayed over to Costco to stock up on some meat (good price for beef) and a few other things they have at good prices (like Kirkland coffee). We'll have more on shopping in a later post...

Seonyudo Park is situated on a small island in the middle of the Han River. Long ago it was a picturesque island with a small mountain, a favourite stop for boatmen crossing the river. The mountain was quarried away and most recently it was host to a water purification plant. In 2002 it was re-developed as an ecological park. The gardens, playgrounds and performance spaces on the island all make use of the ruins of its previous life. It is once again a beautiful quiet spot to escape the heat and bustle of the the city. On Saturday there was some sort of family festival going on, with kids activities and some traditional performances. Lili was most interested in the playground - of course - built from reclaimed industrial pipes and such. Here is what it looked like....

After a nice bibimbap lunch at the waterside restaurant on the island (we sat at the patio) we found an outdoor stage where traditional drum and dance performances were happening. Lili liked the fan dancers the best.

At the west end of the island we walked across a large arch bridge back to Hangang riverside park. Roses were still in bloom. The white domed building in the distance is the National Legislature, which is located on Yeouido Island. The tall gold building to the left of it in the distance is Building 63, the tallest building in Korea.


After a tasty cool ice cream popsicle, we crossed the train-tressel-like pedestrian bridge across the expressway back to the hot busy city. After a quick bus ride to the subway, and a couple of packed subway rides we were home. Jin was feeling a lot better. The weather changed overnight and we awoke to rain on Sunday. Had some shopping to do so we ot theumbrellas out and struck out for Costco to stock up on a few necessities.

Here is a link to the article in the Korean Herald about Seonyudo Park that spurred our iterest in the place: http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/06/12/200906120063.asp

Bye for now,

Derek, Deb, Jin and Lili

p.s. here is a shot of J & L having a snack at our little patio table in the balcony of our apartment.