I'm not sure how many of the participants knew this, but I suppose it's one of the perks of being tour staff. Our one-day trip to South Korea was incredible, and added a tremendous amount to the itinerary. But apparently we had to go somewhere -- cabotage laws for Japan require that foreign ships visit at least one foreign port during a Japan cruise. Fascinating, no?
But lucky for us, the port of Ulsan is directly across the Sea of Japan, and the city of Gyeongju is about an hour's drive from there. Gyeongju is, according to UNESCO, one of the most significant historical sites in the world. Surprise, they never covered that in my history books growing up. But it was the capital of the Shilla kingdom for nearly 1000 years (57 BC to 935 AD) and was known as one of the great cities of the world alongside Constantinople and Baghdad. Today, it is Korea's "Museum Without Walls" -- perfect for me!
Our first stop was Tumuli Park, where these ancient burial mounds mark the graves of the Shilla kings and nobles. If you can forget that these are/were graves, it's a beautiful park. Since I'm such a fan of graveyards, that's hard for me to do.
This is the most famous of the twenty-three tombs. Called Ch'onmach'ong, or Flying Horse Tomb, it was excavated in the 1970s. The only painting found from the Silla Dynasty was found here, a birch bark saddle flap painted with a flying horse. Inside are replicas; the originals are at the National Museum.
Which was our next stop. The museum is a series of about four buildings. The grounds are also nicely landscaped, and include King Songdok's bronze bell, reportedly the largest and most resonant in Asia.
We toured this building with our guide. I liked these stairs/bleachers/ramp, and photographed it more to share with our exhibit designers.
So courteous! I saw rooms like these for nursing mothers all over Japan too.
Yup, house tiles!
One of the big area excavations involved the Royal Palace. I thought the lit model of the grounds was really beautiful.
One of the stone sculptures on the grounds, with these cat-like figures on the corners.
LOVE these windows!
Our guides took us through the building with the Buddhist art too. Some were replicas, which surprised me in a national museum, but many were original. Some pieces, like this one, were in incredible shape, especially when you think about how old they are.
The museum had a nice gift shop, and our guide lost the group there. That was fine, as most thought they had free time then to shop or explore the other two buildings or wander. I bought a few gifts, then went to the building where the originals from Tumuli were housed. Interestingly, although the signs said no photography, and as a museum professional, however accidentally I may have stumbled into my profession, I abide by those rules, the guards in the galleries stopped no one. Odd to me. But, you'll have to trust me when I say that the pieces there were remarkable.
Then, it was off to lunch. We had a pretty amazing Korean buffet. I tried several kinds of kimchi, the bulgoki was incredible, and the persimmon tea was lovely. They had a welcoming for us here, along with a traditional dance performance.
According to our guide, all four of the dances we saw were dances from the 13th century royal court. They have been performed continually since.
She's an angel. Yes, there are photos where you can see her and her dress better, but I liked the motion in this one.
After lunch we were off again, this time to Bulguksa Temple, noted as one of the most beautiful Buddhist temples in Korea. There are two original pagodas from the 6th century. The temple was originally built in 528 when the Shilla Dynasty adopted Buddhism, and was restored in the 1970s. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Throughout, the buildings are elaborately carved and painted, with beautiful stonework connecting the buildings via bridges and walkways.
As usual, trailing the group to make sure we don't lose anyone.
This reminded me of the beautiful and artful street lamps I've seen in France and Spain.
Four "gods" guard the entryway. I couldn't believe the colors!
Yes, a very me picture, probably one of my favorites from the trip. How stunning is this building though?
This fish is one of four gongs that the monks would use to call.
Yes, the temple is still in use.
Not sure how I did it, but it's like having a fish-eye lens. My cousin Kane would be proud of this one, I think.
There was also a little rock garden at one point. Story is, if you make a wish and balance your stone on some others, then it will come true. So of course I did it. But I also wondered, if you put your wish on top of someone else's, what happens to their wish?
I imagine it was nice for our Japanese guides to have a break, although they were still with us all day. We had three Korean guides, two of whom seemed to be really good while the third lost most of his group. I probably should have tuned in to his channel to hear him, but I heard enough reports from passengers who merged into "my" group. Back at the ship, we had a bit of time to wait once we boarded, while the ship and all of us were cleared by customs for departure.
Which gave me a few minutes to take a few photos. Ulsan is one of the world's busiest industrial ports. I was fascinated watching some kind of grain container docked next to us get unloaded. We'd seen them load three small backhoes into the hold that morning; now big scoops were pulling out whatever grain was stored below.
And the ship made use of the port call too -- they had 1.5 containers of supplies meet them here from Germany. Unfortunately, the shipment had a late arrival, so they were still loading when we got back. Which meant a frenzied crew trying to get everything anywhere on board so that we could depart. It took them the better part of the night and next day to relocate things where needed, since they lost those hours while we were ashore, and had to take care of us once we returned.
Another lecture this evening, this one on maritime Japan. We were headed back across the Sea of Japan. What day was it? How much did we have left to go? I didn't know and didn't care, just wanted to keep going.
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