Morning of the 10th-- the Tower Itself
I left off with me and DG getting out of the cab. We then got another cab and the new guy took one look at what Prof C had written and took us right there. Then we took the cable car to the top of the mountain ("cable car" here means one of those things that hangs from a cable-- I think the things that run on tracks in San Francisco are also sometimes called cable cars. [update: Marmadont confirms and explains where the cable in question is in that case in comments below.]). It was a good vew from the car and from the mountain. As we were walking up it looked like there was a good place to take photos from by DG didn't head for it and I was following him. It looked kind of like an ampitheater or perhaps some kind of fortification. Anyway I figured I could get to it later. Then I couldn't because some reenactor guys in costume had set up in it. But then I got a picture of them in these stage-ramparts, and a photo of myself with them, so that was even better. They weren't in the ramparts when we passed the first time because they were in their dressing room. Some time after we passed the ramparts there was some drumming and out they came in their regalia and marched about a bit drumming and disappeared down the path. As we later learned, to take up their positions on the ramparts, of course. There was also a sort of pagoda and we looked at that a bit and then got our tickets for the viewing deck and went up there.
On the way to the viewing deck there was something listing various other noteworthy towers. I remember thinking one should see whether Seoul Tower was taller or shorter than Tokyo Tower since SH was sure to care deeply about the outcome of that. But then I didn't get around to doing so. Of course I found the Sears Tower.
DG and I know each other from NY so of course we talked about the World Trade Center. He used to know some trick: a coffee shop on one of the highest floors that had great views and the coffees cost 5 bucks but the viewing deck itself cost 10 bucks and didn't include a coffee. Plus the coffee shop you could take the elevator right from the parking garage instead of waiting in line. Me, I never went to the WTC. Just kept putting it off.
The windows on the viewing deck were all labeled with cities in the world and their distances. We saw two americans getting their picture taken under Pyongyang. ("Be sure you get `Pyongyang' in the picture.") I spotted a couple where the roles of city and country had been reversed. ("Indonesia, Jakarta" maybe). One could see the river, and some palaces. I guess this is best left for the pictures. Moving pictures from my computer to this one is not so easy (mines a Mac, this is Windows) so I'm just going to hold off until... well, probably just until tomorrow. We're headed up to my grandma and grandpa's and they have a Mac.
Moving along with the narrative, after the tower, we went back down and the next order of business was lunch. We had tried in vain to get a specific lunch recommendation out of Prof C. She just said, well, when you come down from the tower there will be lunch places and if you go into one and it's empty don't go there but if it's full of people go there. Well, maybe there would have been a lot of people if we'd exited in the direction she had in mind. But if so, then I guess we didn't because we had to walk around for a while before we found a place. I got a little nervous because the whole week DGs affection for Korean barbecue and in particular for the fact that you get it with raw garlic had been a topic of much discussion. JH, for example had told a story along the lines of "the first time I knew this was a pretty strange guy was at MIT when I saw him sitting there peeling and eating clove after clove of raw garlic." And I was in the uncomfortable position that, since I'd been in Korea for three months I had some sort responsibility as the expert, but didn't actually have any useful knowledge (such as, the location of a single restaurant in all of Seoul, much less one in that neighborhood). But eventually we did find one, and it was quite good.
On the way to the viewing deck there was something listing various other noteworthy towers. I remember thinking one should see whether Seoul Tower was taller or shorter than Tokyo Tower since SH was sure to care deeply about the outcome of that. But then I didn't get around to doing so. Of course I found the Sears Tower.
DG and I know each other from NY so of course we talked about the World Trade Center. He used to know some trick: a coffee shop on one of the highest floors that had great views and the coffees cost 5 bucks but the viewing deck itself cost 10 bucks and didn't include a coffee. Plus the coffee shop you could take the elevator right from the parking garage instead of waiting in line. Me, I never went to the WTC. Just kept putting it off.
The windows on the viewing deck were all labeled with cities in the world and their distances. We saw two americans getting their picture taken under Pyongyang. ("Be sure you get `Pyongyang' in the picture.") I spotted a couple where the roles of city and country had been reversed. ("Indonesia, Jakarta" maybe). One could see the river, and some palaces. I guess this is best left for the pictures. Moving pictures from my computer to this one is not so easy (mines a Mac, this is Windows) so I'm just going to hold off until... well, probably just until tomorrow. We're headed up to my grandma and grandpa's and they have a Mac.
Moving along with the narrative, after the tower, we went back down and the next order of business was lunch. We had tried in vain to get a specific lunch recommendation out of Prof C. She just said, well, when you come down from the tower there will be lunch places and if you go into one and it's empty don't go there but if it's full of people go there. Well, maybe there would have been a lot of people if we'd exited in the direction she had in mind. But if so, then I guess we didn't because we had to walk around for a while before we found a place. I got a little nervous because the whole week DGs affection for Korean barbecue and in particular for the fact that you get it with raw garlic had been a topic of much discussion. JH, for example had told a story along the lines of "the first time I knew this was a pretty strange guy was at MIT when I saw him sitting there peeling and eating clove after clove of raw garlic." And I was in the uncomfortable position that, since I'd been in Korea for three months I had some sort responsibility as the expert, but didn't actually have any useful knowledge (such as, the location of a single restaurant in all of Seoul, much less one in that neighborhood). But eventually we did find one, and it was quite good.
posted by GB at 3:15 PM
2 Comments:
Having been in SF just last May I can tell you all about their cable cars. SF cable cars are really pulled by cables but the cables are laid underground. That's right, I was pretty surprised at first as well. The cable runs in a channel just below the pavement. The cable cars have clamps which allow them to grip onto the cable and let go off it when they need to stop. The cable runs in a loop along the route of the cable car and is pulled by very large electric motors located in a special station. That's the story.
merci.
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