>

What a great day today. We rented bikes at the train station and rode around Gyeonju, checking out the historical relics of the Shilla dynasty, which ruled Korea from here from 57 BC to 935 AD. This was the first major dynasty in Korea, we already checked out the third and last, and we’ll get to the second when we get back to Seoul.

Bee rode with Angie on a mini tandem and loved it. Frankie rode on a child seat behind me. Next vacation, we do all-tandem.

The Shilla buried their royalty in pyrimid-like mounds, which are now all over Gyeonju. I figure you’ve really made it in the “Dead King” category if people are still mowing the lawn on your mound 1000 years after you die.

The best part of the old stuff was the Cheomseongdae astronomical observatory (below). It consists of 366 stones, one for each day of the year, 12 stones at the base, one for each month, and 30 levels, one for each day of the month. Not sure what observations could be done here, but…



For dinner we tried to go to the Terrace, which was just next door to the place we went to the night before. Unfortunately, the Terrace had new owners, and only served dishes containing abalone (!) but the owner directed us to the “Spoon and Chopsticks”, a Korean restaurant that definitely did not cater to tourists- no English in sight, but lots of great food.

Bee and Frankie didn’t eat as much as we did, so we treated them to Isaac Toast, where they made the grilled cheeses right on the street in front of us…