Bonus! half-day: 고성[Goseong]-속초[Sokcho]

May 15, 2022

It was so nice when we walked out of the motel and into the fresh morning air that we both exclaimed "Let's ride our bikes to 속초[Sokcho]!" It's magical when two partners are on the exact same wavelength. No buses for us today!

We had plenty of time before our noon reservation at a Nepalese restaurant in 속초. My brother-in-law had arranged it as a way to help us celebrate the successful completion of our East Coast tour. A mild tailwind put us ahead of schedule, so we took a side trip around 송지호 (Songji Lake).

Finally got a decent shot of a cattle egret

Otherwise, we were treated to the rear-view-mirror version of our trip north. It's absolutely true what they say: each direction is a completely different experience. The one thing we noticed is that we were more reluctant to take photos, embarrassed that we might end up with duplicates from the previous visit without even knowing it.

This is definitely not a duplicate. We both marveled over this 한옥마을 (traditional village). Really one of the most beautiful we've seen, and we've seen a few.

We continued our tradition of "second breakfast" with hot coffee and 단팥빵 ( red bean bun).

We were just riding along, retracing our route, when we came across an unfamiliar set of stairs. Then it dawned on us: this was the other side of a two-flight set of stairs that we "noped" out of two days prior. It involved a short detour, which we quickly backtracked to. Other than that, there were no surprises as we made our way to the 속초 bus terminal.

Sunyoung had a brilliant idea: why not store some of our gear in lockers so that we wouldn't have to haul them to our hotel, which was 7km away? She checked that out, as well as the bus schedule for tomorrow's journey to 춘천[Chuncheon]. They had lockers, but they prohibited overnight storage. Oh well.

Warning: non-bike touristy stuff ahead. This is not our style of vacationing, but once once pushed into this path, we rolled with it and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

The restaurant was located a couple blocks away. They didn't open until noon, so we had a few minutes to kill. It was worth the wait.

Afterwards, we alternated between bumpy sidewalk and busy highway to reach this condo that my sister-in-law had a coupon for. We had 5 stairs to climb, but after that it was all smooth sailing as we rolled right in to the room.

After cleaning ourselves up a bit, we took a short taxi ride to 설악산국립공원 (Seoraksan National Park) to check it out. We took the cable car to ogle over the views along the way and at the peak.

Yes, that's 동해 (East Sea) in the distance

The people-watching was almost as interesting as the mountains themselves

Back in the valley, we walked over to the closest temple and took a few more photos.

We didn't even begin to scratch the surface of the wonders this park has to offer. Despite the somewhat rushed visit, I'm glad we went. One thing I should add is that there were a lot of westerners among the crowd. After three weeks in Korea seeing only a handful, I had a moment or two of reverse culture shock.

Tomorrow it's off to 춘천[Chuncheon] for what should be a two-day trip down the 북한강 (North Han River) back into 서울[Seoul]. We have friends and family to meet there, so probably no more biking until we're ready to lazily ride our way towards 인천[Incheon] and the airport. One day at a time. We still have more stamps to collect!

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,093 km (679 miles)

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