Overnight we sailed into the Incheon harbor via the locks and backed into our berth in this industrial port. After a quick breakfast, we met up with our group in the ocean bar and waited until 8:30am before joining the immigration line. It turned out that for this port that the Koreans brought their staff onboard and set up multiple review stations. The process involved a scan of one's keycard and passport and visual confirmation of one's facial match to the presented passport. All totaled the process took no more than 10 minutes from the time the line started moving until we were done. We walked off the ship by 8:45am and easily found our guide for the day. There were 7 of us in a 10 passenger mini-van.
It took around 1.5 hours to reach Seoul with a number of traffic backups. Once we were in the city our guide took us to the restored Cheong Gai Chong stream that has a strong cultural history. They've re-created a beautiful waterfall and riverbed and it is a pleasant place to relax.
Our next stop was the ancient palace grounds. It's a walled affair about 1/3 the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The palace grounds has been destroyed and rebuilt many times due to foreign occupations, but fortunately the original plans have been preserved so that the complex could be rebuilt. One of the most striking features about this site are the sheer number of young ladies and a few young men that wear traditional Korean clothing (it gains them free entrance to the grounds). The dresses are simply spectacular and very colorful. They can be rented for 10,000 Won for two hours or $10US.
The grounds include the King's and Queen's palaces, meeting and administrative offices, gardens, cook houses, and housing for the King's other wives and relatives. The architecture is very Chinese with Chinese inscriptions on every building. The buildings were last used in the 1920's when the last emperor reigned.
Adjoining the palace was an excellent free museum and we spent far too little time there. We drove a bit further into the city in order to enjoy a traditional Korean lunch. It was flavorful and really not too spicy. After lunch we visited a Buddhist temple which was decorated with thousands of very colorful lanterns in honor of Buddha's upcoming birthday on May 1. We had a few minutes to stroll the pedestrian walking mall before driving to the traditional ancient village.
This village is a collection of historic small Korean houses and was quite scenic. For here we drove back to the port and said our goodbyes to our guide, paid him the $63pp cost, and reboarded the Volendam.
On the drive back our granddaughter became ill with a really queasy stomach. So we positioned her in our stateroom under covers and with liquids. We went up to the Crow's Nest where we watched the sail away including passing through a cute set of locks that dropped us about 3 feet to the ocean level. There was also a very pretty Ferris wheel near the locks.
After a very quick Lido dinner, we watched the evening's entertainment, Paul Emmanuel, who's from the U.K. and a very good singer of standards.
Tonight was also the Philipino crew show at 11:00pm. Fortunately, we turn back our clocks one hour as we sail to Tanjin, China. Tomorrow is another sea day which will be good for some recuperation. Stay tuned for more.
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