Incheon — Hold the E – Peckish Travels

As Bob and I have traveled via metro/subway between Song-Do and Seoul, we have been listening to the pronunciation of the various stops. While I had noted that ‘s’ here is sometimes pronounced as ‘s’ like Song-Do, it is also sometimes pronounced as ‘sh.” Bob, on the other hand, noted that our region, Incheon, is pronounced “inch-on” and not “inch-ee-on” as we had been pronouncing it. So, there you have it. A linguistic lesson to introduce our long walk to see a bit more of Incheon proper.

Again, as we travel between Seoul and Song-Do via Incheon Line 1 and then (one of the many) Seoul Line 1s, we have noted a number of stops in Incheon that sounded like they might be of interest — City Hall, Sports Complex, Art & Cultural Center. I also like to do long walks, so I suggested that we walk to the Incheon City Hall (farthest stop) one day and then take the metro back to see more of this region.

Bob was game though he noted it would be a 2 hour and 45 minute walk per the Naver app. We set off on Wednesday and the following are some of the highlights. It was a fairly chilly day, so we stopped at Starbucks (I know but we know the menu.) in Incheon for a break with a couple of Americanos. Yep, just 2 Americanos having Americanos.

One of the many nice bridges in the area. This one is near Haedoji Park just north of where we are staying and along the main road that we took almost all the way into Incheon.

While we walked along main roads, you are never far from a park here. And Koreans take advantage. The parks are used often, and the population seems quite fit.

One of the sidewalks along our way, note the presence of a bike lane. Bike lanes exist on almost every street — either in the street (raised up from the road) or as a designated portion of the sidewalk.

Bob interacting with the artwork along the way. He better watch out for the goose!

One of a number of large malls in the area. While these people DRESS, very stylish, the malls seem to be full of every kind of sportswear (Adidas, New Balance, North Face, etc.). The other popular stores are make-up and children’s stores.

What appears to be a big slide from the top floor to the bottom, it was closed off when we popped in so we didn’t get to watch it being used.

The Seonhakbyeol Library, an Astronomical Science Library with a planetarium.

Incheon is called a city but contains a number of regions including some islands. Our walk today took us into the city proper with governmental and other buildings. It is also an area, which we learned a few days later, that played a key role in the outcome of the Korean War.