Route: 4 River Bike Trail Seoul - Daegu - Busan 720km

Seoul is wrapped in thick clouds when flying in and only the three tallest skyscrapers peer out. It is uncomfortably cold and foggy, so we take a taxi for 70km into the city to the Banana Guesthouse. Just arrived, Bona is calling and together with her and Sunny - the two were visiting us by bike in Vals - we explore the city and are invited by them for dinner. The first Korean specialty to taste; Chicken with glass noodles on a spicy red pepper sauce. Sunny and Bona are able to take a day off, and together we walk through the 10 million capital, visiting the South Gate of historic Seoul, strolling through markets, and enjoy Sunny and Bona explaining all the new things and goods to us. Of course, it is a great experience to try the exotic food and in the evening a plate with delicious raw fish is served, including a baby octopus still sticking to the plate. Many thanks to you, lovely Sunny and Bona, for your great hospitality, showing us around, answering all our questions and making our stay in Seoul so interesting.

Next two days cycling through the city, visiting the Olympic Park and being astonished to see the Koreans setting up their tents in the parks during the day for the picnic. Finally we cycle in glorious sunshine to Hangdang-river to the bike path which will lead us 600 km to Busan along the 4 rivers. The first night it rains so much that everything is wet in the tent and the temperature is cold too. So we even buy warm winter gloves!

We love the specially for cyclists built bicycle ways, with an infinite number of bridges, in changing rainbow colors illuminated tunnels and uncountable beautiful parks. Many Koreans ride their bikes here, but some ride with a transistor radio turned on. The Koreans are very helpful and no day passes without being given some gifts.
The time on the bike in Korea is a great experience, the many instant noodle soups for lunch and the lovely places to camp and all the beautiful parks make nice memories. And thanks to maps.me we can easily find the places we are looking for in the big cities. If there are cyclists who need maps of the 4-river route, go to the blog „cleverpegontour“ to download the maps.