A bit tricky to add info about these on the phone. Not helped by being a bit hazy about pace names. The old building is the “tomb of the beloved cow” not exactly sure what that means but seems to be related to the development of hangul by King Sejung the Great in the sixteenth century.

Pete took this of some rice fields earlier today. They are all being harvested now with tiny combine harvesters not much bigger than a large van.

I had spicy cold rice noodles for dinner tonight. Like every other meal, the restaurant owner came out, watched in horror as we tried to eat it, and then gave us a crash course in eating Korean food.

One restaurant we went to they flat out refused to serve us because we could not convince them we knew about spicy food. Everything we selected from the menu (painstakingly translated via papago) was rejected as too spicy for us. Eventually we left and went to the Korean bbq place down the road where we ended up with amazing grilled duck and a crash course on how to cook it. It was delicious. 맛있어요!

What are you doing for accommodation?

We are using Airbnb. It has a lot more than booking.com. It has generally had a fair number of places to choose from. First night was right on the Han River with amazing views, second night was in a giant apartment block that looked like it would be very sketchy – but in fact was fine.

One place we went, the Airbnb owner came running after us all the way down the street to tell us that the restaurant we had planned to go to was closed (all via papago).

(View from the balcony of the Han River. You can just make out the cycle path on the right of the river. This is 70km from Seoul and it’s almost continuous from there.)

Last day today, arrived in Busan about an hour ago, just about to head out to find something to eat. A few pictures from earlier today:

Five (yes five!)  recycling bins at the Airbnb. Rishi Sunak’s war on recycling has not yet reached Korea.

It was about 80km today, mostly on cycle paths again. We had tuna 김밥 –  gimbap for breakfast (like sushi rolls),  features a lot in “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” so had to try it. Restaurant owner clearly thought we were simpletons but left us to it.

Have seen a few snakes on the paths – they generally try to get away as fast as they can.

Will post a few more when we’ve eaten dinner.

Riding across the enormous weir/flood control barrier for the Nakdonggang river (which we’ve been following for the last 300km or so).

We actually skipped about 80km of the river to give ourselves time to visit friends, so would have been following for more like 500km.

Nakdonggang River center. It has a tiny bike museum.  They really take their cycling very seriously.

Downtown Busan. Kimchi stew for dinner (they had to check that I knew what it was) , followed by cake in a bizarre night club/dessert restaurant playing very loud k-pop.

That’s it. Back to Seoul tomorrow on the train, then flight to London, and back to the IT,  zoom conferences, leveraging synergy and all that stuff.  Now I’m wondering about a return trip, so much more to see here. Thankyou everyone who read this and got this far!

P. S. Molgrips,  if your wife is in to kdramas,  then the start of our route (slightly off the official course) went right past the hotel used for “King the Land”,  the Hyatt.

We are hoping to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace tomorrow in Seoul, the main one where all the tragic historical dramas are set (although I think there’s actually a fake mock up somewhere used for the filming).  I will try not to cry.

Just for Molgrips’ wife, we went to the  경복궁 – Gyeongbukgong Palace.

This is the main palace of the Joseon kingdom,  and where lots of historical kdramas are set. It really is stunning. Molgrips, if you have seen Mr Sunshine (“sad ending”) then this is for you.

Loads of people dressed in hanbok – traditional Korean clothes which you can rent from a store over the road..

Amazing place. Lots of it was demolished by the Japanese during the occupation but it is slowly being restored and rebuilt.

I returned with my long-suffering friend.

We set off from Incheon and headed through the megalopolis towards Suwon.

I was in Suwon a decade ago but spent the entire time in a grubby Samsung office trying to fix hopelessly broken software. This time I wanted to see a bit more of the place.

The castle is prettier nice but chucking through the rest of Suwon is a drag. Giant six lane freeways and huge intersections where the traffic lights take forever to cycle through. Took a couple of hours to escape on to the river path heading south.

We got given these as a side dish in the evening. Fried butterfly pupae. I had them when I was here in Suwon all those years ago. Never. Again. Ever.

Today, cycling west next to the river as it slowly turned into the Yellow Sea at Gunsan.

Lots of this was amazing, but some is a bit grim, I have to be honest.

Tomorrow going to head further south, eventually to Mokpo.

11 month gap is because this is a different trip to cycle new areas! Sorry, I should have explained that better!

Last year was the Four Rivers route. This year we are just making it up as we go along based on the weather forecast.