Trip to Mt.Apsan part II

Up the Mountain and down again....

So we caught the cable car for a 5 minute ride. It was standing room only and it made me feel a bit queasy. Court on the other hand was white knuckling the hand rail the entire time. He does not care for heights. We got to the top and there was a little restaurant. We walked up a bit and stood near the over look. This picture is looking down and the bottom and you can see two cars.

The view was just magnificent. Daegu is so huge! We could see the mountains on the other side of the city. The city itself is nestled in between mountain ranges. The picture below is a shot of the area we live in. The red arrow is pointing to our apartments.

Tucked into the mountain is a good view of a Buddhist monastery/temple.

All of the tall white buildings are apartments. It is amazing to think that 3 million people make Daegu their home.
A shot of me with the view in the background. The large green area is part of Woobang Tower Land which is a local amusement park. We hope to go there soon.
Here is Court in a good picture of him gazing out over the mountain. Notice he is holding tightly to the rail. We made our way further up the mountain. The path we were walking on had at one time been a stone wall. It was very very steep and lots of stairs.

Here is how Abby went up the mountain. She was having the time of her life.
We went up a little ways and then back down again. Back near the Cable Car station was a bathroom area. Maddie had to go so we went off to try. Now is when my anxiety kicked in. I have heard about the public toilets in Korea. The first set is the mens. Nice and close for them while the women have to walk a bit further down.

We opened the door and discovered this!
EEK!!! No way was I using this. First of all I just can't figure out how to do it without peeing all over myself and secondly it just smelled awful. They were pit toilets and they needed to be dumped. Maddie was not super excited and I would not let her use them. I am sure that those of you who know me (ahem...Thad) are just roaring with laughter. I would have rather pee behind a tree than use this!
Well it was time to go back down the mountain. The ride back was a little better. Court agreed it was not so bad. I think it was because we were able to all sit. We got back down the mountain and took a short 70 m hike to a temple/monastery that was close by. It was all up hill. Maddie complained a lot and so we took a lot of breaks as we went. We found a nice spot with benches and let the kids take a break.
Abby had crashed out after her hike on the mountain. Gavin and Maddie were enjoying their snack so I went on ahead to see the temple. It is daedeok-sa temple. Here are some pictures.


It was really really pretty. I would like to see more temples before we leave here. There are two more at Apsan park so next time I would like to look for those.

Before leaving we found a small pond with Koi (sp?) in it. We let the kids feed the fish for awhile. Gavin took this picture of us. It turned out pretty well.

The rest of the trip was pretty interesting. We walked down the mountain and looked for a cab. All of the cabs were full or going the wrong direction. Maddie was crying and tired of walking. So we put her in the stroller and I carried Abby. We had a pretty good walk. I would say at least 2 miles. I really want a pedometer! We walked to the back gate at Camp Walker and on to post. All the way across Camp Walker to the PX and did a little bit of shopping. Then we caught a cab out front and went home.

Maddie crashed almost as soon as we were home in her clothes and shoes and slept a good 12 hours.

I have to honestly say this was one of the best days I have had here and I really really enjoyed myself.