May 22, 2022
The big island: 서울 용산구[Seoul Yongsan-gu]-영종[Yeongjong]
We didn't have to ride much today. The AREX train goes to 서울역 (Seoul Station), which isn't far from where we've been staying for the past 5 days. Bikes are allowed on weekends. Our destination was the campground along the 아라 path where we had wanted to stay at directly after landing at 인천.
The plan was to ride to the campground, check it out to see if it would work for us, submit our bike passport for more seals and stickers, then take AREX to Terminal 2 to talk to someone at Hanjin about boxing our bikes.
It was a beautiful, breezy morning. I can't believe how incredible the weather has been overall. We were expecting heat, humidity, and thunderstorms. We got very little of any of it. We leisurely retraced our steps, joining lots of casual and serious bikers on the trail. Everyone was in a good mood.
The campground turned out to be a bust. As we were inspecting the place on bike, a caretaker came out with a bullhorn, sounded a siren, then told us that the place was closed until May 26. We didn't bother asking why. We crossed the street and cooked what would be our final camp stove meal of ramen. Not a proper lunch, but we wanted to use up both our fuel and our emergency food supply. We succeeded in neither. I did find us a great deal on a room on 영종도 (Yeongjong Island), near the 월미도 (Wolmi Island) ferry, in case we felt like popping in to downtown 인천[Incheon] for some last-minute tourism.
Next stop was the building with the passport vending machine. We weren't sure if they would be staffed on a Sunday. No worries there. They efficiently processed the passport, giving Sunyoung 3 more decals to add to her helmet. Woo hoo!
The AREX train station was nearby, with bike trails leading directly to it. There were no issues with the train. Elevators were available wherever we went. The two guys at Hanjin, though not enthusiastic, gave us the green light to return on Tuesday morning to box our bikes. For probably less than what it would cost to transport two boxed bikes from our hotel to the airport, we'll have custom boxes built for us in about twenty minutes. Another sweet deal.
We found the COVID testing center where we'll get our antigen tests Tuesday morning. It's great that we now know where everything is located. That'll make things so much less stressful. We then hopped back on the train as far as the 영종 station, and 5km later on a decent sidewalk bike path, we arrived at the hotel. There are a lot of shops within walking distance. I had a vegetarian 순두부 (soft tofu stew) for the first time in Korea. It was delicious.
Instead of taking the ferry to 인천, we might just ride around the island. We may end up flipping a coin to determine which activity to pursue. One thing's for sure: on our last day, we're definitely not just going to sit around and do nothing.
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Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 1,283 km (797 miles)
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