Sunday has turned into our adventure around Seoul day. We decided to go to Jongno-Gu today and see the royal ancestral shrine and Changgyeonggung Palace. It ended up being a gorgeous day and walking around the palatial grounds was a wonderful way to end the weekend. We took in the sights of the raised stone plazas at the shrine and the preparation buildings where deceased royalty were honored through a series of rituals. Each member of royalty has a tablet written about them when they die and this shrine compound is where the tablets are kept. Although, we didn't actually see any tablets. But we did enjoy walking around the peaceful gardens and seeing the grand Asian architecture of a bygone era.
We took a footbridge across to the palatial grounds and we completely fell in love with Changgyeonggung Palace. It was gorgeous. The grounds were magnificent, the buildings were amazing, and the gardens were lovely. The palace was built in the early 1400s during the Joseon Dynasty. This is actually not even the main palace for that dynasty, this is where the queen's quarters were. We were captivated by the ornate style of the buildings, how the brightly colored and intricate wooden masterpieces interacted with each other and the majestically cultivated gardens surrounding them. We really liked the details that had been used to create this architectural wonder - like the hand carved dragons on every shingle, the gargoyles on every rooftop, the carved stone steps leading up to gardens and the shutter systems used to open up bedroom quarters to the outside air.
We loved the gardens a lot; there was a picturesque lake full of giant fish, cranes relaxing in the trees, and ducks wading in the water. There was also a beautiful white and glass paned greenhouse with carefully shaped hedges outside and a very pretty fountain. We had a wonderful time walking around and enjoying the hot summer day in such a beautiful place!
After walking around the palace we ventured out onto the streets of Jongno-Gu. We enjoyed window shopping throughout the jewelry district and seeing all the street vendors. There were so MANY random things for sale! As dusk fell we found a wonderful pedestrian arcade full of tents with everything you could imagine for sale, including Korean wooden masks, silk screening paintbrushes, statues of Buddha, incense...and of course shoes, purses, knock off everything, and hats, haha. We had dinner at a tiny little Indian place up above the street on the second floor. After a simple yet delicious meal of chicken and vegetable curry with yellow long rice loaded with peppers, veggies, and yogurt sauce we returned home to our little apartment.
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