Hwaseong Fortress

 A couple of weeks ago we went on a little road trip and ended up in a town called Suwon, the provincial capital in Gyeonggi-do. The only remaining completely walled city in South Korea. It's known as The City of Filial Piety... to respect ones parents and ancestors. 

We looked what to do here on our "i Tour Seoul" app. & the first thing that come up was the Hwaseong Fortress. Not gonna write the whole history, but I'll put the links to wiki-it' on the labels.

 We only got to see about 1/4 part of the Fortress, because we decided to hike up the mountain first, by the time we got down, we were exhausted.  But there was so much to see on our way up that I was satisfied with our little adventure. 

We tell Markus all the time; "Let's go on an adventure"... he loves it. Now when he's bored he tells me; "Mommy we forgot to go on an adventure, let's get the car".

Como dicen en Puerto Rico; "salio paticaliente y andariego": )

We parked right in front of these steps, so we decided to hike up first. 

the stairs aren't gonna do...

we have to say hi to the cat...

wow...

WOW... again

that's one big Buddah...

Buddhist temple

Inside the temple...

Buddhist temple

Buddhist temple

We noticed the use of the Swastika symbol all over Seoul.  It's in signs, buildings, even in cars. In the beginning I wondered what it meant here. I needed to find out, since my ignorant and judgmental self first thought was; Nazi?!?  Know I'm happy to know it is a symbol widely used in indian religions, like Hinduism, Buddihsm & Jainism, as a tantric symbol to evoke "shakti" or  good luck. 

I must be getting smarter by the day here.... lol

Swastika

Fresh water

The idea of fresh mountain water seems nice, but, do we really have to share cups with the world...   Sorry, I pass..... my germophobic self got hers at the vending machine.

After all that...

Still all of this.... 

Poor Sean, Marky gave up, he had to carry him up.

I guess no matter on what side of the world you are, people are mostly the same...  No one reads or follows instructions.  Sorry, but to say the truth, they will push you down before moving to the side. No apology either.

 Po-po-po... I got a lot of stories on pushing, shoving, touching... You'll get a laugh at that post when I do it.

Almost there, almost there...

We did it!!!! 

Suwon

After I caught my breath...

Suwon

The view of the city.

Suwon

This...

Must be that... If you know how to read Korean.

             This reminded me of  " El Morro" in Old San Juan...

Oh... to stare at the sky...  Not trying to get all "strawberry shortcake" on you, but it really was a pretty view!

See... Beautiful!

Left, left, left, right, left...

Suwon, City of Suwon, Korea, Fortress

The wall that surounds the City of Suwon.

Well, that's it for this post. You don't want to see the pictures after these. Two grouchy parents,  a tired & even grouchier boy and a hungry baby.  If you have kids, you know how it goes from there...  straight home : )

xoxo