Seoul, Korea - Oct 10, 2014

Incheon is where the ship docks and is the gateway to a sprawling Seoul and together these two cities rank fifth in the world in population density, with over 17 million inhabitants. This Asian Tiger nation grew from a small underdeveloped economy in the period following the Korean Was in the 50's to become Asia's third-largest economy. As proud as the Korean people are of their cutting edge position in manufacturing and now digital technology, Koreans celebrate their traditions, as evidenced in the ancient temples that still dot the city, the National Museum, Gyeongbok Palace and the many traditional arts still practiced here, such as the dance and drumming.

Our two days here under beautiful warm sunny skies were simply incredible and this is mainly thanks to Ellie and Jeff who did the research and found an incredible guide, Miae, who along with her small family run travel guide business (seven in total) gave us two days that will remain in our memories forever - thank you Miae.

A great guide is important and HAL does a great job with their excursion team and the tour we did with them a few years ago but when you can run a two day excursion with eight people in a 24 person van, there is nothing better than some elbow room and personalized service. Personalized service also meant a personalized itinerary with some off the cuff flexibility built in. What a great two days.

We started with the largest fish market in all Korea, fresh is the name here, if it is not already packaged, it is fresh - meaning still alive or as close to it as possible. Here is the kicker in this market, competition is high, presentation is exceptional, locals usually harbor a relationship with a particular vendor, so you select your live catch, they will take it with you to a restaurant, one of your choice or one that they have a relationship with and on a per head basis they will cook it for you. How's that for a catch of the day.

Next we headed to Jogyesa Temple and as luck would have it, we are here during Temple Week 2014 and not only that but they were having a Buddhist service at the time of our visit. First time we have seen one of these temples in full service - amazing. What was really amazing was the theme of the service - the celebration of life. It was for the celebration of life for those that are left after losing someone. So I found this very interesting to me as it was a year ago almost to the day that my brother had passed and I have been reflecting on this as at this time year ago we were making our home for his service. When Miae explained this service to me I took the extra time to be in the moment of what was happening in the temple - kind of like it was for me. A special moment of reflection.

Across the street and down a block or two was a car free market area where we had a traditional lunch, very nice. We then headed to the Gyeongbokgung Palace for the 1 pm changing of guard followed by a comprehensive tour of the palace and its grounds. We had a few other stops along the way including another amazing huge street market before ascending the Seoul Tower for a sunset visit followed by watching the light of city come up. Back to the ship by about 8:30 for a late room service dinner and bed by 10:30 as Miae was picking us up again then next day at 8:30.

A great day with many pictures to choose from, this is a four part upload. Some of you may wonder why I need to do this in four parts, well the server we use here on board only allows for about 45 to 50 pictures (at a certain kilobyte size) to be uploaded at one time so after resizing all the picturesI have found that for the size I use, 45 per upload in acceptable. Hope you enjoy ...