Gyeongnidan-Gil

Good morning!

These trees greeted us right outside our door on the first sunny morning of our stay in Seoul.

By the end of our stay, all the red leaves from the Japanese maple had fallen and formed a thick crunchy carpet that interfered with the gate at the bottom of the steps.

On the left is the steep and narrow alley that led to our gate. There are many like it in Itaewon-dong.

For us, visiting from San Francisco, the hilly nature of Seoul was a welcome surprise. Tokyo is flat.

The color photos here are presented in the same order as they were taken, as we made our way down Gyeongnidan-Gil and onto the main street of Itaewon-dong.

Apparently the police buses (seen in the photo on the right) have been parked here since the Halloween crowd crush which happened just a few weeks before our visit. The memorial was nearby. I didn’t photograph it.

The Ginkgo trees were losing their leaves ahead of our Japanese maple.

The main street was full of clothing shops and food spots, but in the early afternoon it was subdued. Most coffee shops here didn’t open until eleven in the morning – the earliest ones open at nine. Seoul runs late.