Wilkinson Family Adventures: Gyeongbokgung Palace and National Folk Museum

Saturday we had a very busy and fun day. We went to Gyeongbokgung Palace in the morning, which is the biggest palace in Seoul, and the National Folk Museum which is connected to the palace. Then we walked to Insa-dong, which is a market nearby that sells antiques, tourist souvenirs, food and other things. After that we went to Changdeokgung Palace, and then finally Tapgol Park to see a 15-story Pagoda. All of that is not going to fit in one blog post so I am going to split it up into two.

So, Gyeongbokgung Palace had some beautiful grounds that were really fun to walk around. We spent over two hours walking around there seeing all the different buildings and grounds. The buildings were neat and very elaborately painted, but after awhile they start to all look the same. Most of the buildings have the same design and style, which is pretty, but it gets a little repetitive after awhile. Here are some of the pictures we took at the palace. If you want to see all of them they will be in an album on facebook, Gyeongbokgung Palace and the National Folk Museum.

They were doing a processional type demonstration there. Here are a couple videos of it. Video 1 Video 2

We were waiting to watch the Changing of the Guards.

Here are a couple videos of the beginning of the changing of the guard ceremony.
Video 1 Video 2

Now we entered the main palace area.

This is the main throne room.

Alden started getting tired around this point.

The inside of some living space.

The doors look hard to manage and I don't know if I could rest with such an intricate design over my head.

This was a very pretty pond area that was fun to walk around. Unfortunately, we never actually made it into the building behind us.

Drew was pointing at some distant building realizing how big the palace was.

This door seemed a little short but nothing like what we saw at the next palace...

There were tons of buildings to see!

Our little boy taking his morning nap...

The grounds really were beautiful here.

I thought this was the prettiest place at this palace. This pond was beautiful, especially with the unique building in the middle!

Our little boy was still so tired and slept through our snack break.

After our snack break we headed over to the National Folk Museum which is connected to the palace. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as other places we have been here but it was certainly nice to be get in out of the heat for awhile. I think the coolest things that they had there were the models they had built of traditional Korean homes, a wedding ceremony and the displays on food. You can see those pictures below. To see the rest go to the album on facebook.