Olympic Park

Landon liked the acupressure road

Seoul was the host for the 1988 Summer Olympics. The park surrounding the venues and a museum are still open at the site and we wanted to go see it! First thing we saw was a foot acupressure road. There were big rocks, small rocks, planks of wood, blocks of cement, and all sorts of things. It did feel very nice on the feet even through shoes. We weren't sure whether we were supposed to wear shoes or not, but it felt good even with shoes on. 

Lando loves Austin's BYU hat

We entered the park closer to the venues than to the entry gate. Our first venue was the gymnastics venue. They were setting up for a concert inside! Next, we came to the Olympic swimming venue. We walked 3/4 of the way around it before we found the entrance. The venue now has a gym around the edge, some restaurants, and the pool. There was a women's master's team practicing. The age range seemed to be pretty huge, and they were diving in and racing freestyle and even butterfly. The instructors were in wetsuits. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but Austin was not impressed with the pool itself. It was gutterless, but not very deep. 

Gymnastics venue

Swimming venue

My boys at the pool

 After the venues, we decided to look at the rose garden before going over the the gate. It was much bigger than I expected, and filled with tons of different roses. I posted just my favorites here, but took a million pictures of different roses that I found around the garden.

This sculpture was in the middle of the garden. It was a sphere made of lots of colored metal tubes,
kind of like a gigantic wind chime. 

Thanks, camera for having a timer feature for a family portrait!

Athlete housing from the Olympics

Sculpture park

 After the rose garden, we exited the park and had lunch. We went to a traditional Korean fast food place. We got tempura vegetables including sweet potatoes, little pieces of squid, and eggplant. That was really good. We also got a seaweed soup with tofu in it. On pictures, it shows a long ribbon skewered on a stick, but when you order it, they take it off the stick and put it in a bowl with broth and seaweed garnish. It was pretty good. Landon did not go for the traditional Korean food, but he did go for "chicken fries" and french fries from Burger King.

After yummy lunch, we hiked over to the fortress and Peace Gate. The fortress ended up being just a giant pile of earth. We were looking for stones or something but I think in ancient times they just used the natural landscape of a big giant hill to protect them.

Peace gate from the ancient fortress

Giant thumb sculpture by the gate

The really cool gate! Traditional Korean

Rock sculpture opposite the gate. It had rocks from every participating country and athlete. 

Big rock from the Olympic Committee

Underneath the gate

Olympic museum!

 We had a lot of fun at the Olympic museum. There was a bobsled from the Sochi games in the lobby. Landon thought it was a car and loved it! Next we went into an exhibit on the past Sochi games. They included some fun activities including curling, and climbing up on a podium. Unfortunately almost everything was in Korean, but we got the gist of whatever they were showing.

Landon loved curling, although he had trouble keeping the stones (they were on rollers) on the board

He didn't want to stay on the podium

Upstairs at the museum they had so many artifacts from the games in 1988. It ended up being a really cool museum
with all the highlights. Here is a big drum!

 After the museum Landon played at the park for awhile. He liked running around and chasing pigeons as well as playing on the play structure. It was a long day full of walking, but it was worth it. Here was one last picture of the gate from where we caught the subway back to the hotel.