South Korea Day 11: The Grand Park

 The cherry blossoms were fading away as Spring advanced, but other flowers popped out all over the place. Wisteria put out tentative blossoms and magnolias bloomed and faded, largely ignored in the shadow of the cherry blossoms. Tulips of all sizes and colours popped up in gardens and banks of rhododendrons blazed beside walking paths.  The Seoul Grand Park was reported to have a large tulip display along with a rose garden, cherry blossoms, a zoo, and of course a chair lift. 

Off we went to get in on the tulip action.

It's really the Grand Park, but "Seoul Grandpa" works as well.

The active geriatrics were out in force, setting off to walk around the lake, through the sculpture park, and into the forst behind the park. They were supplemented by individual families trailing baby carriers and toddlers and flotillas of day-care mini buses disgorging cute crocodiles of preschoolers all in matching hi-vis vests.

The roses had not yet woken from winter, but the cherry blossoms gave us a delightful surprise, petals fluttering down all around us and filling the gutters. One of the active geriatrics threw handfuls of petals in the air for her photo opportunity and next minute all of us, including the day care kiddos, were doing the same thing.

It was fun.

The tulips put on a fine show despite not being quite at their peak.

The sculpture park was full of arresting sculptures with explanatory signs in Korean, so I appreciated everything in a very uninformed manner.

We couldn't walk all the way to the top of the park as there was a Zoo and an amusement park in the way, neither of which we wanted to visit. As we walked back down the hill the smog/clouds cleared and some of Seoul's surrounding mountains popped into view.

We ate lunch in a Cafe with shades of Alice in Wonderland. In an adjoining room a class of South Korean youngsters sat in polite and impressive silence as they waited for their meal.

After lunch came the high point (literally) of the day. With great excitement we boarded the chair lift and set out on a surprisingly long and relaxing ride over the rose garden and across the lake.

The chair lift.

The lake, the bridge, the forest beyond.

The rose garden.

The umbrellas, coming back to base.

Back on land, we boarded the Elephant Express which did a quick loop of the park, delivering and picking up people from/to the Zoo and Amusement Park. Quick didn't even begin to describe our tour: we roared around the park as pedestrians jumped frantically out of our way and parents grabbed bouncing children as centrifugal force threatened to send them flying on the corners. In the brief stops a mother exhorted her two little boys to say "Hello!" in order to practice their English. They refused to look at us, let alone speak, and went off to the Zoo with their little heads full of unpractised English.

The elephant bus: specialising in high-speed park tours.

We went home too, and spent the afternoon hanging out in the markets looking for things like breakfast cereal (hens teeth would have been easier to find) and, of course, heottokk.