Korea's Graceland - King Sejong's Tomb

 King Sejong who is also known as Sejong the Great is probably the most famous of Korea's rulers.  He is said to have invented hangul, written language of Korea.  He also invented a rain gauge and new sundials among many other things.

The roadtrip did not start out as we had planned.  King Sejong's tomb is located in the city of Yeoju which was about 45 miles from our apartment.  We had a phone number we found on the Internet and plugged that into our GPS and we were good to go.  We left at 10 am with plans to stop at a McDonald's not too far from our home.

We soon found out that the McDonald's had closed and the entire building was completely gone.  The whole side of the street was under construction.  I reminded Rocketman that Korea is great for having rest stops with small restaurants and plenty of food all along their highways.  He was hungry!  Sure enough, we found one shortly after we left Suwon.  It was huge and we were shocked that it had a McDonald's!

 It was also packed with people but they got people served very quickly.

 There were little shops outside selling everything from tools to toys.

                                       Right next door there was even a batting cage.

 The traffic going east was horrible.  We averaged 19 miles per hour with lots of stopping and going.  It took forever.  We actually ended up going past King Sejong's tomb and ended up, thanks to our GPS, at the tomb of King Hyojong and Queen Inseon.

                                        We decided to check it out since we were already there.

 Admission was so cheap at only 500 won each ($.40 USD).  Rocketman also asked where the heck King Sejong's tomb was and we found out that it was 700 meters back the way we came.

 Rocketman had to be very careful with his head.  These doorways were not made for tall people.

                              It was so beautiful and I'm so glad we came.

                                I think this guy was a worker and he was just taking a little nap.

 

                                             The tomb of King Hyojong and Queen Inseon.

 

 

                                They even had a giftshop and I found some poop on a stick.

 Next we drove back and found the tomb of King Sejong and Queen Soheon.  It was also just 500 WON.

                                                                This is the entrance.

 

                               They also had strollers you could use which I thought was a great idea.

                                                        Here is a statue of King Sejong.

                                            This is a map of how the tomb area is laid out.

 There was a group of kids that looked like they were on a tour.  It did start to rain and Rocketman ran back to the car to get our umbrellas while I waited.

 Both the King and Queen are buried in this mound but they are in separate chambers.

                                          We saw this cutie patoodie running ahead of her folks.

                   There is also a museum and I found quite a few kids taking notes.

                                  This is probably the most famous picture of King Sejong.

                                                                   More notetaking.

                                               We also found this family having a picnic.

I did get one little souvenir.  The trip back was much faster although it was also raining very hard.  I was discussing with Rocketman what to title this post and he came up with "Korea's Graceland."  I thought it was so true and just perfect.