Time to go home

It was a relaxing start to the day. We enjoyed a late breakfast knowing the day was going to be very long.

The shuttle van picked us up at noon to take us from Yongpyong to the Jinbu KTX train station.  This KTX high speed rail line was built specifically for the Olympics. It connects the Coastal Cluster and Mountain Cluster with the Incheon airport in Seoul.

Given that many events were completed, I fully expected the train to be full. I had heard that the luggage storage in each car is pretty small - so it was appreciated that each of us were booked 2 seats on the train. One for us and one for our luggage.  It turned out to be a non issue as there was only 6 people in our car.

This was one of the older versions of their bullet trains sitting in a station along the way...

Our train speed probably peaked out at ~ 130 kmh on this route and when it got close to Seoul it didn't run much faster than 60 kmh.  I had plenty of time to get to the airport.

The countryside was very similar from Jinbu until we got close to Seoul and then the city went skyward.  Blocks and blocks of apartment towers mark the city. It is obviously not the way to see a city of ~ 10 million people - by taking a train ride through it....

 

 

.....but there sure are a lot of towers.

The Incheon airport is south of Seoul so you travel by the outskirts of the city and then head back out.  From Jinbu to the airport, there wasn't a flake of snow. The train is very comfortable and quiet.

It was interesting that one of the last photos taken on my trip to the Winter Olympics was of a baseball game in Seoul.

My flights home were awesomely uneventful - direct to Vancouver and then a short hop back to Calgary. Since I gained back the day I lost at the front end of the trip, I got home to Calgary at essentially the same time as I left Korea.

B.