Woke up to Titus coming in our room dressed and ready to go.  He said in his sweet voice, “I’m ready for our bike trip”. Tim proceeded to tell him about his “special” milk (individual milk box) that was in the fridge, trying to distract him in hopes for a few more minutes in bed.  About an hour later we peeled ourselves out of bed with our morning ritual of saying “seriously boys! It is 7AM and people live below us!”  Then granola, french press, about 5 trips up and down the elevator later, and we were packed and ready to go in record time!

The Plan: Drive to a guest house(apartment) in Andong that we randomly booked last night online.

We drove for 2 hours before we stopped at a rest stop.  I LOVE REST STOPS IN KOREA!!  Not only do they have absolutely everything, but each rest stop is unique to the area. This rest stop had a museum of eclectic recycled yard art that was a clash of the old Korea and the new.  

The last hour of our drive was the Atypical “are we there yet” attitude from the boys and it was a relief to say “we are here”.  

The room: Tim received a simple text message, in Korean, with building, room, and internet codes; it was basically telling us to go on in and make ourselves at home. (Tim used a translation app on his phone to decipher the message). You can imagine how this may be awkward in your own country, but this was a first for us in Korea. When you can’t really speak the language you could find yourself in a very awkward position, say if one of the door codes was incorrect and someone questioned you… Thankfully everything worked great and we were pleasantly surprised with the apartment!

We changed into our bike gear and headed toward the Andong bike path. Korea has amazing bike paths(Link). We found a cozy spot under a bridge and next to a tractor, an instant crowd pleaser with the boys.  

The Ride: Imagine a small river in a valley surrounded by mountains and a few sporadically placed harvesting fields and you are simply making your way to... nowhere. That was us. We took our time and took in the scenery. The ride was different from others in Korea in that we were the only ones on the path and it seemed to be used more by locals on their tractors than by cyclists. The path had it all, straight-aways, twists and turns, and of course some hills. Much to our dismay the boys were rather whiny, “I’m hungry”, “It’s cold”, “My sock is bothering me”, “I can’t see”, “It’s too cold”. We made it about 10km out when we stopped for a quick snack at the top of a hill, hoping that the boys would be satisfied. (It also conveniently was the start of a 15% down-hill slope for 120 meters that Kristin was a little concerned about.) So, taking into consideration, the weather, the time, the boys attitudes, and let’s be honest, Kristin’s hesitations, we decided it was best to head back to the car by the tractor.  After a quick pack up we were back on the road towards our room. 

Surprises of the trip thus far: Aside from all the is mentioned above we also happened upon a few wonderful surprises. We found a pagoda overlooking a lake and stopped for a quick photo or two. Afterwards we headed back to find some dinner (there were 2 galbi restaurants right at the bottom of the building of our room). We walked into one and had some of the best galbi! During dinner the man who sent the text about the codes proceed to message about payment along with wanting to “entertain us for breakfast”.

So, that was our day! Now here we are, coffee cup of wine in hand (only cups in the room), boys asleep, and anticipating what adventures will arise tomorrow!