Tuesday 10 July 2007 - Seoul

The buffet breakfasts here at the Sofitel Ambassadore are terrific. You can get whatever you want, from cereals, fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage, breads and pastries to Kimchi, seaweed, rice and soup.

We went on tours today - Ian to the DMZ and Heather on a Royal Palace Tour.

Ian's DMZ Tour - He was picked up from the hotel at 7.40am and boarded a minibus to Imjingak Park, Freedom Bridge, ID Check Point, Unification village, The 3rd Tunnel (DMZ Theatre Exhibition Hall), Dora observatory, Dorasan Station, Imjingak Park, Ginseng Centre and then back to the hotel.

He was disappointed that he did not come across Slim Jim from the Imjin!

Demilitarized Zone, Panjumjom

Heather's Palace Tour - She was picked up by her tour guide from the hotel at 8.40am and taken by minibus to Cheonggye Stream, past the Blue House (home of the President), Deoksugung Palace, Jogyesa Buddhist Temple, Amethyst Factory and then dropped of at Itaewon Shopping Centre. Spent a couple of hours and did a bit of shopping and people watching before getting a taxi back to the hotel.

Royal PalaceTour, Seoul

Back at the hotel we showered and dressed for dinner. We spent a nice evening at Pub Restaurant "Gran-A" which featured a terrific Phillipino band. We even had a dance and Heather was asked to dance by a Korean guy! Good fun. Last night of our wonderful holiday.

Monday 9 July 2007 - Seoul

After a great buffet breakfast at the hotel, we went out to explore. Walked down the hill and found a street full of motorbikes followed by a street full of bubblewrap and other packaging materials, and so it went on...one street after another full of different products. Got lost in the fabrics area followed by the buttons district and the laces district. Then we found Dongdaemun Market and wandered through its maze of stores. Akko got a bit pissed off at this stage! We then found Doota, a big department store - but it was Monday, a "Regular Closed Day"!! Got lost in the wholesale area and kept getting nearly run over by scooters and motorbikes loaded to the extreme. Crossed the road and found the shoe street. Akko did a big dummy spit at this and told me he would meet me at the end of the street. After finally purchasing a pair of socks we caught a cab back to the hotel.

Seoul

Saturday 7 July and Sunday 8 July 2007 - New York to Seoul

Packed! This has become a bit of an art form - trying to even out the weight between all the bags and fit everything in! We had pre-booked a car to drive us to the airport so we had a chance to drive across the Queensboro Bridge and do a bit more sightseeing on the way to JFK International.

Long wait for the departure of our plane at 1355 on 7th and long flight - 13 hours - but Korean Air is a pleasure to fly with. Our only complaint was that we had numb bums by the time we arrived at Incheon International Airport at 1730 on 8 July.

After clearing immigration and customs, which took about an hour, we messed about finding the correct bus for the hours drive to our hotel, the Sofitel Ambassador. We were pretty beat and stayed in our room which has a fabulous view of the city. Ian found an Australian channel on the TV and was happy to hear a home grown accent and an update on Australian news. We had no Internet connection in the hotel in New York, so I checked our email and updated the blog before calling it quits and going to bed.

Friday 6 July 2007 - New York

Caught a bus down 2nd Avenue to City Hall and walked to Battery Point from where the ferries leave for Staten Island, Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty. The Park has lots to look at including sculptures, monuments, street performers and vendors. One of the most remarkable sculptures is that which had stood in the foyer of the World Trade Centre.

After taking in the sights and photographing several, we took the Staten Island Ferry to get a closer look at the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. The Harbour is very busy and we had an added bonus as the new Queen Mary II was in port.

New York

On our return we visited the New York Vietnam Veteran's memorial and then walked along Wall Street in the Financial District.

We needed lunch, even though it was about 3pm by this stage, so we found the Mudville 9 Pub which has a baseball and sports theme and which proved to be something like the bar in Cheers where everyone knew one another. By the time we had our lunch and a couple of beers we knew Vinnie, the owner; Wendy, the barmaid; Nash, a 6 foot 5 inch regular who is an electrician who commutes two hours each way from his home in Long Island to work on the tallest building being built in New York since the Empire State Building. We had also chatted to several other regulars. Great fun!

Took the subway back uptown to be closer to our hotel and walked around the area. Chatted to a lady who was walking her Sydney Silky. We have found New Yorkers to be very friendly, despite their reputation. Called in at the Blue Room before going back to the hotel for our last night in the US.

Thursday 5 July 2007 - New York

I headed off to find Central Park which is fabulous - an oasis in the centre of a concrete jungle. Even though it was early morning it was quite full of people walking their dogs, runners, people doing tai chi and sightseers. The street curbs were full of bagged garbage and the garbos were doing their rounds - amazing how much garbage is generated.

Central Park

After showering and changing for the day we headed off to a diner for breakfast and then took a bus down 2nd Avenue and through Chinatown to Ground Zero. Directly across the road is Century 21 which is an outlet for designer clothing, houseware, jewellery, etc. Ian went to see the Firefighter's museum which is all he wants to say about that! I went walking. I finally arrived back at the hotel at about 7pm after exploring the Garment district, Greenwich village, Union Square, Times Square and then along 42nd Street.

We ordered room service and called it a day.

Wednesday 4 July 2007 - Fayetteville to New York

Chris and Joan, neighbours of JB and Betty, had driven us into town at 8.30 last night and we had dinner at the Hardware House Micro-brewery Restaurant before going to the railway station.

The Amtrak train was running late and finally, at 3.15am it pulled out of Fayetteville. We dozed on and off until daylight and then watched as we passed though Virginia, DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey before arriving at New York Penn Station at 1.30pm.

After we had collected our bags and made our way to the station exit we were swooped on by someone who turned out to be a taxi touter- illegal!! However, it turned out OK for us because he lead us to where the taxis were and I don't think we would have found the street easily without him. Despite all the stories about rude New York cabbies, we got a nice friendly and informative driver who brought us to The Benley hotel at 500E 62nd Street where we checked into a nice room with a view of the East River and the Queensboro Bridge and the cable cars which run regularly to Roosvelt Island.

We dumped our bags, admired the view and then went out to explore the neighbourhood...I think I saw Seinfeld's building and Becker's diner!! I was bouncing off the walls with excitement and Ian was telling me to SLOW DOWN!! I couldn't, so I went off to find Bloomingdales and look around a bit more before coming back to th hotel to shower and change for the 4th July fireworks.

We went up to the 21st floor of The Bentley where they have a restaurant and bar and a better view of the river than that from our room. We were told that they were fully booked - gloom! We asked them to call us if they had a cancellation and they did - joy!! It turned out to be a great night despite that fact that the fireworks were a bit obscured by a king sized spray painting booth over part of the bridge.

New York

Thursday 28 June to Monday 3 July 2007 - Fayetteville

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TANYA (2nd July)

R and R in Fayetteville. After all the excitement of driving about 10000km in 6 weeks we have enjoyed staying put for the past 5 days. During this time we have enjoyed visiting the local malls, drinks in the evening at Charlie Mike's Bar and sampling different restaurants from Korean to Southern Chicken to Mexican. Heather has got back into training in an effort to be able to last the distance in this year's Bridge to Brisbane on 5 August 2007! Whew!!

35Fayetteville

JB, Betty and Bryan took off on Saturday for a work commitment in Oklahoma City. Betty is the manager of the JFK Special Forces Museum at Fort Bragg. She is a one-woman powerhouse! I helped her load the Chevy cargo van with merchandise to be sold at the Special Forces Convention over in Oklahoma. She can fit more stuff into a small space than anyone else in the world...amazing!

We have been left in charge of the house, Sachiko the cat and JB's lawn. Ian's rain dance worked on the first night and the lawn got a really good soaking.

Sachiko is 14 years old and is recovering from being very ill. He is fighting fit again now and eating like a horse - 4 cans of cat food in one day! Betty also feeds the neighbourhood feral cats and we have discovered a mother and four kittens living under the trees in the back yard.

Across the road neighbours, Joan and Chris, have kindly offered to drive us to the train station tonight so that we can board the Amtrak Silver Meteor bound for New York where we will experience 4th July celebrations.