Olympic Park

Every two years my family knows that for two weeks I will be MIA.  I love to watch the Olympics.  I don't care if it is summer or winter or what event is on--I will watch it.  Being in Korea has made this a little bit more difficult because most of the popular events are shown in the middle of the night and we don't have any sort of DVR over here.  But, I still love to watch what and when I can.  (Last night I watched fencing, shooting, archery and table tennis.) When I'm not watching the Olympics I'm reading about them (and telling Russ all I have read).  So this past weekend we decided it would be a perfect time to visit Seoul Olympic Park.  (The Summer Olympics were held in Seoul in 1988)

Seoul is a massive city, but in order to allow people to get away from the hustle of city life they have these huge parks scattered throughout area.  I had read that they best way to see all of Olympic park was to do it by bike.  After we arrived, we quickly realized this was a valid statement, so this is what we rented:

Doesn't this contraption just scream tourist?

It was very hot the day we went and the humidity was through the roof.  Thankfully, for the most part the park was pretty flat, but there were a couple of hills.  The girls loved to ride down the hills, but weren't really strong enough to help peddle up them. 

Poor Russ pushing the cart up the hill.

The park is set all around water (it is actually a moat and there is a fortress in the park, but we didn't get to explore that part when we were there this time) with beautiful flowers and huge sculptures scattered through out it.

The busy city right outside of the peaceful park.

Each of the sculptures had the artist and the "interpretation" posted right by it, but even with the description some of them didn't make sense...perhaps something was lost in translation.

The country flags were fun to ride our cart through.

The "World Peace Gate" was massive and beautiful.

Not a great picture with the gate, but when you can't really communicate with the person taking the picture you take what you can get.  Next time we go back we will get a better picture.

They have a free museum that gives the history of the Olympics and has lots of Olympic memorabilia.

Taylor is bummed that she only got 3rd place:)

These were the mascots from many of the past Olympics.  It was fun to try to guess where each were from.

Seoul

Atlanta

They had a huge display for the London Olympics.  This was a countdown clock.

This was the massive drum that kicked off the Seoul games.

The park also had a couple of playgrounds and shaded resting areas.  These stone walking paths are popular in Korean parks.  You will often see people walking barefoot on these bumpy paths and they are supposed to be good for your circulation.  (Russ likes them, I think they kind of hurt)

Interesting fact: In the early Olympics the winners were awarded apples.  That would never fly now, huh?