On our way back to Mongolia we had a scheduled 34 hour layover in Korea. We got into Incheon airport around 4 in the morning, and after going through immigration we immediately made our way to the airport 7-11 and stocked up on teas, onigiri, and all sorts of sweet and salty Korean snacks. We spent the next few hours until the rest of the airport opened exploring the airport and stopping to refill on snacks every 30 minutes or so. The Incheon airport is one of the best in the world, and no wonder.  Where else can you see a 3-D lighted paper-mache model of a boy flying a kite?

From the airport were able to book our hotel room, get a free shuttle to and from the airport to the hotel, and organized a 5 hour bus tour to Seoul.

The bus trip took us to Seoul which is about an hour from the airport. The area between the city and airport seemed to be a mix of industrial areas and scrub brush nature with a lot of fog mixed in. In Seoul we walked a bit around downtown next to a recovered and rebuilt river that flows right through the middle of the city.

The city was clean, open, and quieter than I had expected. There were also some lovely pieces of art.

We then went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, a large, multi building palace in the middle of downtown Seoul which was built in the 14th century. We got to see a number of the buildings as well as the changing of the guard ceremony. While the palace was lovely, I did wonder how comfortable it was in the winter. Seemed pretty drafty to me!

A super fancy water fountain

The main entrance gate

Details of the buildings

And the obligatory peace sign photo

Our last stop in Seoul was for lunch and a bit of shopping in a tourist district downtown. As always the food was amazing, and we bought an assortment of wooden and metal chopsticks.

We will definitely be heading back to Korea for a real vacation in the near future. First stop on my list: the Korean Folk History Museum. You can watch them make kimchi the old fashioned way!