Suwon Fortress

It seems like we've been keeping a good sight seeing schedule. We have been getting to one new event or attraction (historic or otherwise) each week. Jini and Sup took us to Suwon Fortress. We had planned it the weekend before, but then decided against tromping around in the rain so the following weekend we went. On the way there, I was so surprised to see my first spring flowers! At first I thought it was just light green shoots and buds starting to form on bushes, but when I asked about them, Jini said it was very popular and you see it everywhere. It's called forsynth - I looked it up. Here's the first look at the wall and a lookout tower.







The first thing we did when we got there was practice Korean archery. It was really fun and it wasn't as embarrasing as I had expected it would be. Curtis turned out to be a born natural and hit the target once or twice. It looks like all those years at summer camp paid off mom and dad!











There are two main parts to see at Suwon Fortress, the wall that is 5.7 km in circumfrance and in the middle is the fortress itself. We didn't have time to do both so we had to pick. We decided to do the walk around the wall. At some points there are lookout towers or other building to look at too. Here was one of the first buildings that we saw.























Even though we had a map, I still didn't understand what we were getting ourselves into. It's a bit deceptive too that part of the city is still inside the wall. We couldn't really see where the path was leading around us. One sights that caught our eye was a gorgeous mountain thick with pine trees. Little did we know, but our trip would carry us up one side of that mountain and down the other. In fact, while we were admiring it at the start, I began thinking I'd love to come back to hike on it someday! Here's the first part of the wall. Along the way there were tonnes of gorgous flowers and the starting buds.






























This was Curtis' and my first excursion with our new camera so we took liberties to see how well our zoom worked. There is a bit of haze, but this golden statue was so far away it looked like a leaf on the hilside. Needless to say we were pretty impressed.

This was the view from on top of the hill. It was an overcast day so you can barely make out the mountains in the distance. It was so refreshing for us to get up high and make sure Korea wasn't one big city.

This one is my new most favorite picture. It was the first time in my life I've ever seen magnolias. They're really stunning because they are such a big flower on such a bare tree. I'm not sure if they like Canadian winters, but if they do, I'm going to have one in my yard.