Scenic Drive

I found a tourist map of the county we live in and gave it a good look over. It was in Korean so I could only go by the pictures to find what looked interesting. There were several small things here and there to look at so this Saturday we got in the car to go for a drive and check it out, stopping periodically for photo ops. The first place we saw was this temple. It was an eye catching sight; driving along looking at the bare winter landscape and then this large gold statue with the sun shining directly on it.

Buddhism has various influences, this sect was obviously influenced by India. There were several signs around, but they were all in Korean. There was chanting over some loud speakers echoing off the hills so it felt like you were surrounded by people chanting. It was kind of neat. Here is the temple.

We continued on our way, snapping a few more photos along the way.

It was a beautiful drive and we arrived at our intended destination, Gasansanseong Fortress. I was quite proud that I was able to read that in Hangul all by myself! But I couldn't read anything else so I didn't know anything about it except what was in the picture. When we got to the park area where it was, this wonderfully nice park ranger came out to talk to us. He spoke English well enough and asked if we wanted him to show us around a little bit. So we said yes and he took us to this Buddhist temple close by that was built by some guy who still lives there. I believe it's considered rude to take pictures inside the temple so I didn't. He showed us how he does his bows (apparently people have their own personalized bows) and explained some of the things in there to us. Then he showed us how to get to the fortress and gave us his card and said to call when we came back. He was so nice, I wish I had taken a picture of him!

The fortress entrance, obviously with some repair.

A view along the wall.

the gate from inside the fortress wall

A little history: This is a triple walled fortress, apparently the only one in Korea. The first wall was built circa 1640 and the last built circa 1700. There are supposed to be some remnants of what some sources call a castle inside this area, but I didn't see them. I also don't understand the triple wall; it looked like one wall to me.

Because it was so cold this day...

...(the water is frozen solid coming out of that pipe!) we just continued our scenic drive back to our home.

There were several of these boat restaurants. We also passed one that was an old airplane!