A history of war

Today really was a slow start. It was 9am before we were all out of bed. We had just had our first coffee when Miel arrived with some kimbap she had made. It was like sushi and there was lots of it - a perfect lunch dish.

A leisurely breakfast, a second coffee and a load of washing later we finally wandered out to buy lunch and dinner supplies.

Our previous daytime walk through Itaewon had been in the relatively early morning when there was very little open. But by 11am the main street was buzzing. We checked out a few souvenir shops but there was little of interest. We returned to the awesome bakery we had found on our first day in Seoul and stocked up on a baguette to supplement our sushi and some ciabatta rolls for a picnic tomorrow.

On our return we stopped at the supermarket and bought some pork, veggies, noodles and a spicy bulgolgi sauce for a cook at home Korean dinner.

It was then time for lunch, and the kimbap was as good as it looked, and according to Jonno, the baguette was pretty good even by French standards.

After lunch we headed to the War Memorial of Korea, a museum which displays the history of war in Korea, about a 15 minute walk down the road. There was an incredible array of military hardware in the grounds, including air-planes, tanks and a replica of the patrol boat that was sunk by the North Koreans not so long ago.

The entry to the museum was very grand, and recognised all the nations that had supported the Republic of Korea during the Korean war. Admission was free, and the museum was huge. It covered over 2000 years of Korean war history. There had been innumerable wars over the history of this small peninsula. There were battles within the fuedal kingdoms then with the Chinese and later the Japanese. It was a fascinating insight into the different wars. However, there wasn't time to absorb it all.

We covered the early history in detail, then fast forwarded to the Korean war. The displays were excellent with most panels including an English translation. There was also a lot of audiovisual options in English. By the end of two hours we felt we had a good understanding of the most recent Korean war.

At that point, Georgia and I left the boys admiring the war machines we had skipped on the way in and we headed back to the house for a cup of tea before getting started on dinner. The boys weren't too far behind. We had a drink and some chips before dinner whilst we researched plans for tomorrow.

Dinner was a great success, and there were some extra veggies left over for Georgia's lunch tomorrow. Soon after dinner, John and Miel arrived in response to our question on where to find the best local Korean BBQ. We thought we should eat it at least once in Korea. We also had a discussion about dinner options for our last night in Seoul and agreed that we will all have dinner together.

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