Saturday, April 01, 2006

Zuidhof Family Visit Korea - gyeong-ju

A weekend getaway to Gyeong-Ju. If you want to learn about some history of the korean people, this is where you need to go. We took friday off to have a long weekend with the family. Gyeong-Ju was the capital of Korea about 1000 years ago.

We are waiting to the KTX speed train. It travels at a speed of 300 km/hour. In just two hours we went from Seoul, at the northern end of the country, to Gyeong-ju, at the southern end.


Inside our condo. Coudn't expect much more from the brothers. There were also some good wrestling matches between Jesse and Shannon, Reuben and Sarah Jane AND Shannon and Sarah Jane.


We strolled through a park of tombs. In each of these tombs only one King or Queen is burried. They are from the Silla Dynasty 50BC - AD1000. There are hundreds in the area, and they have only dug open 6. One is on display for the public to view and the other five have been put back into their original state.


We went to a Folk Art Village. It was a little inactive at this time of year, but we did see a master of pottery at work. This artist is world renowned because he mimics his creation process after that of the Silla Dynasty.



Reub and I are standing infront of an observatory - Cheonsangdea. It was a little shorter than we expected, but a beautiful sight. It is the oldest observatory in Asia.


Dad, taking a few moments meditating.

Bulguksa Temple was our last stop. It is the most well known temple in Korea. There were several monks worshipping and meditating in the various buildings. We tried to make the moment lighter with some fun pictures. Mom, you finally got a good one!!!
It was a wonderful weekend away, especially for Reuben and I as we had some time to relax with the family. We played a lot of Kong-gi, (a korean game we taught them), cards and did a lot of sitting around and talking. Thanks for coming family!!!

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