We’ve been to plenty of palaces over the past couple of years: Hampton Court Palace, Neuschwanstein, even Sleeping Beauty’s castle in Disneyland Palace.  Castles in the storybooks and movies I grew up with were all about moats and turrets, winding staircases and singing tea-pots.  But in 1400s, while the House of Lancaster struggled to hold onto the English throne, another palace was being built in a city that would one day be only 10 hour’s flight away.

Changdeokgung Palace was built in Seoul by the kings of the Joseon dynasty.  Today, it’s billed as one of the must-see visitor attractions of the city.  So, we went to see it, and then returned on Tuesday when we found that on Monday it was closed. 

For most of the week, the only way to enter the palace is to join a tour.  There are three daily tours in English.  Ours was lead by a young Korean woman with a vast knowledge of the English words relating to palaces, and difficulty pronouncing ‘r’s.  An hour or so into the tour, once we got the Secret Garden, Matt turned to me and asked “is she saying ‘loyal family’ or ‘lawyer family’?”  Giving the context, I can only assume that she was referring to the ‘royals’.

It wasn’t a beautiful palace, at least not in the sense we are used to.  The grounds were little more than dirt, the Secret Garden contained a distinct lack of flowers.  However, I was impressed by the beautifully painted buildings and fascinated by the way the architecture hinted at what life might have been like: the way there were separate women’s and men’s buildings; the way that there was a separate, higher, path for the kings. 

The tour lasted 90 minutes – which was more than reasonable for 3,000 won (especially when compared to the entry prices of some of the European castles).  I was left feeling that there were stories here.  Stories that, if I ever do get around to writing historical fiction, I might like to explore.

Tash