Sunday Nov 1, 2026
Hi Folks! We were docked overnight here and spent a second day in Seoul, South Korea. Yesterday it was nice and sunny but today was chilly and rainy. But we still had a nice day. Our tour went to five places and lasted about 9 hours. This vacationing is tiring! Lol.
We went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was built in 1394 and is the largest of the five Joseon Dynasty Palaces. The King and his family lived here. Back then Korea had a King but now they have a President and a Prime Minister who run things. We also stopped at Insa-dong Street which is in a quaint neighborhood in central Seoul and had lots of traditional Korean crafts.
Another stop was at Namsangol Hanok Village which is a restored traditional village but the most fun stop was at Gwangjang Market which is the oldest traditional Korean market. It was made famous by the 2019 Netflix series “Street Food”. And boy was there street food! There were tons of people lined up to eat things I had no idea what they were. But everyone was having a good time and munching down!
We tried hotteok which was a pancake type treat made with wheat and sweet rice flour and filled with a warm, melted mixture of dark brown sugar and cinnamon. Dang were they good!! Speaking of food, we also had a great lunch of a variety of sides along with different types of pork that we cooked ourselves at the table. To eat the pork, you wrapped it in lettuce leaves and added some condiments. Sooo tasty!
Speaking of food again (we are on a cruise ya know!), we got back onboard and went to the main dining room for dinner. I had the Seafood Spring Roll for my appetizer, the Miso Glazed Salmon (one of my favorites!) for my main and the Caramel Macchiato Mousse for dessert. All were yummy!
After dinner we went to the show which was a new guest entertainer named Clarissa Spata. Her show was called “A Night at the Theater” and she’s a Soprano singer that sang some Classical, some musical theater and even some opera! She had a very powerful voice!
After the show we ended our night with our favorite routine which was listening to Kelly play piano. Tomorrow we’re at Jeju Island, South Korea. Hoping it warms up! Hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend!
PS: The countdown is officially on! We are exactly one week from the end of our cruise. Kinda bittersweet since we’ve LOVED Japan and South Korea but really miss the kids, grandkids and all our friends!
