Seoul 11.12 - a quick glimpse of Gyeongbokgung

John and I scheduled a tour to visit Cheong Wa Dae (the Blue House,) and I was planning on visiting Gyeongbokgung along the way.

We arrived at the Gyeongbokgung station and it had a wonderful traditional decor, vibe, and atmosphere.


And there was a stone gate that read "never old door/gate." It is believed that people would be forever young if they walk through the gate!
We took exit 5 and when we came out this was what we saw:



This was right outside of the main area of Gyeongbokgung, and we needed to find its East Gate parking lot for our Cheong Wa Dae tour.

We got lost and couldn't find the parking lot until much later...

But along the way we were fortunate to see part of the guard ceremony:



Eventually I saw the Gyeongbokgung information booth and a lady directed us to the right spot for our tour. We made it but totally missed our scheduled time spot! Thankfully the officials were kind and placed us in with another group so we could start our tour. The tour was great, and I will tell you about it later on.