Seoul Time came early

We've made it to Seoul without incident. In fact, getting here was quite uneventful. Our "Goober driver" (that's what son-in-law Rock texted from our driveway) arrived on time and dropped us off at DFW Airport with plenty of time before our flight.

Phillip had used frequent flier miles to get our tickets for the non-stop flight to Seoul and he had booked us on business class. One of the perks of business class on international flights is the included use of the Admirals Club while waiting at the airport. We had never been in the Admirals Club since we generally fly coach. So, we took the opportunity - and I can tell you we would get spoiled if we did that very often! 

Comfy chairs with computers, continental breakfast, restrooms with Bigelow lime and cilantro soap and lotion (their scent reminded me of a mojito!), and all the coffee we wanted. We had a voucher for a top shelf alcoholic drink, but I used mine for a bottle of water instead. Phillip had a drink with whiskey. Yes, at 9:30 am! It was, however, 11:30 pm in Seoul. I guess he was already on Seoul time.

Our seats were as we remembered from our Miami flight, roomy with lots of controls for any position you'd want to put it in. 

The seat also came with a pair of slippers and a complimentary toiletries kit. The pillow was a real size, not 1/10 the size of a bed pillow. The blanket was a duvet and the flight attendant kept bringing food. Again, we could get spoiled! The first snacks she delivered, warmed nuts, were cashews, pistacios, almonds and pecans. No peanuts to dilute the "good stuff." And OK, those warm nuts called for me to move to Seoul time with Phillip, so I had a Sam Adams beer. Well, to be honest, I had two Sam Adams beers. 

The food was pretty darn tasty also. Phillip had bibambap, a seasoned meat and rice dish, and I had grilled chicken. I wasn't yet into travel mode enough to remember to take pictures before we dig into the food, so there's no picture of this meal. We had plenty of time to watch movies. Since the screen was in the seatback in front of us, we could each watch whatever we wanted. I re-watched the latest Stars Wars movie and saw Spotlight and The Big Short, two movies Phillip would not have wanted to watch - and he didn't. He re-watched Creed (the boxing movie) instead.

When we arrived at Incheon Airport, we just followed the crowds thru the airport to immigration. A long line awaited us, but it was orderly and moved fairly quickly. Almost all the positions had been staffed to handle the travellers and an employee directed people into individual lines at the right time. We followed the crowd again and made our way to the KTX train area. We waited in line to get a ticket, but on the way to the train, I saw that I can use a kiosk next time. The ticket has the departure time and seat assignment, and there's just one waiting area as this train only goes from the airport to downtown. A very clean train, not a subway, with a lady who walked thru a few times, stopping and bowing to the passengers when she entered and left the connecting cars at this doorway.

Our only issue for the day was getting out of the train station when we arrived in Seoul. Think DC Metro stations on steroids. I did not realize that the KTX train platform was seven floors below ground level. Yes, we were on floor B7. We followed the crowd again, repeatedly going up escalators. I knew that I shouldn't make it all the way to ground level, that we needed to walk thru the subway to get under the tracks to be near our hotel. However, we stopped to ask where exit 7 was and a lady directed up to an elevator. We ended up on ground level in a shopping area, faced with a street that had no pedestrian crosswalk and subway lines that one couldn't possibly cross. We wandered around in this area for awhile as I got more frustrated. We finally when back down a bit and I took a picture of the map of the subway tunnels. Back upstairs, we found a police station and a nice officer who spoke enough English to direct us to the subway entrance about 50 yards away, from which we could walk under the street and find our elusive exit 7. Sure enough, our hotel had been less than two blocks away as we wandered around the Seoul Station. Today, I plan to go back and master that station!

Our hotel is nice and modern, and the beds are great. We went to sleep at about 8:30 pm Seoul time, waking up at 4:30 am. We walked to the 7-11 and came back where I began this post! It took me awhile to get the pictures transferred, but I'll be doing better on future posts.