Day 4 of Quiring-family visit (For some pictures from church on Day 3, look near the bottom of this post.)
After watching the Changing of the Guards ceremony at Deoksugung Palace a couple days earlier, we decided we wanted to compare it to the Gyeongbokgung ceremony. Sunday, July 1, we were at the gates of the palace (some of us clad in red and white for Canada Day!) just in time to watch the Changing of the Guards ceremony. Rather than the ceremony being all in one area just outside the palace gates, like at Deoksugung, this ceremony involved spectators rushing from the sidewalk outside the gate to the large marching grounds inside and back and forth again several times. It meant that we had more room to spread out inside the gates, so could see the individuals closer up, but also that we had a harder time seeing the actors as a group. In any case, it was very interesting to see this second Changing of the Guards ceremony and compare it to the smaller one we'd seen on Friday.
After the ceremony ended, we paid for tickets into the rest of the Gyeongbokgung Palace and wandered around for a few hours until we realized we needed to get going if we wanted to get to the N Seoul Tower and then over to the Han River for a river cruise at sundown. More on the rest of our day in our next post!
Breakfast (trying to use up the last of our food)
Spectators gathered outside the palace gates
Marching grounds inside the gate
Ali running to get a good shot
For a taste of what the ceremony looked and sounded like, watch the video below
Canadians dressed in evergreen instead of red
Showing some Canadian pride
Her family went a little bit overboard in helping her
