Bus back to Seoul

 Again the day started Wet!  my plan (it keeps changing!) was to cycle down to the bus stop, bag up Hennie for the bus ride back to Seoul.  But I knew there was only a small space out of the rain.

So I asked the receptionist to book a cab for me, while I bagged Hennie.  She looked a bit worried, it might be hard to get a large one and suggested I make a coffee while she made some enquiries.  A little later she came back to me, saying that there were no large taxis available and anyways, they're so expensive, but one of the staff members has a large car that my bike will fit in the back.  

A rather large and imposing Black (of course!) SUV was parked by the door, back seats lowered and Hennie easily slotted in.  As did all my bags and away we went.  He parked a little illegally, I think that is common, and helped me carry my stuff to the waiting area.  I thanked them both profusely!  There was about 30 mins to wait for the bus and when it arrived, I was about to get up to load my stuff, when the young guy appeared again, carried Hennie to the bus and helped me scan my ticket and waved me goodbye again!  How good was that!  so warm feelings all round!

Once on the very comfy bus - I had a single seat, with TV screen with videos to watch if required (I think it worked but I didnt bother trying!)  - I settled back for the 2hr30mins express back to Seoul.  We had one stop and soon we were in the big smoke again.

I quite quickly got Hennie back together again, thumbs up by the staff standing around!  but then... yeah, I'm back in a large city, try to remain cool!

Had to cross the main road so wheeled Hennie down to the traffic lights!  But no pedestrians allowed at these lights.  Guy with a traffic saber told me to take the elevator.  So I did!  ended up in a food court with only steep steps to get out the other side.  Back up the only elevator and then walk in the other direction to get to a pedestrian crossing, but eventually across and just a short ride and soon we were back on the Hangang bike path, which I had cycled along on that first day!

The Han River had increased greatly in size, due to the rain over the past few days.  There had been flooding in under passes and there were muddy places up on the bike way.  I stopped for a snack at the same place I had stopped, first day!  The river was still up over the lower bank there.  

It's a lovely bike path to ride along, especially without the weekend warriors, bleating at me like on the previous ride.  There was plenty of time to get to my hotel north of Seoul, so I cruised happily along.  

All was going wonderfully, until I had to cross a fairly small channel.  Consulting Maps.Me showed me that bikes weren't allowed on the main bridge over, nor was there any way of getting up onto a secondary bridge - oops, it was a trains-only bridge.  I asked a guy at a pop-up bike shop and he said I needed to go back aways to cross this other bridge that had a pedestrian/bike path.  

OK...  so, grumpily back I go probably over 1km, to the bridge suggested to be met by an extremely over-excited traffic warden, waving his light saber at me, telling me the pedestrian access was closed.  They were preparing the surface for a new layer and no cyclists were allowed.  It was a bit rough looking, but I was prepared to walk, but No NO NO!!  As I was turning around trying to work out how to get across this channel, when a Mamil arrived, also wanting to cross this bridge.  He had a rather loud conversation with the TW and then he checked with me, where I needed to go.  There was much muttering and cursing (I imagine) until he said, he would show me the way.  Could be dangerous, I think he said!  While we were waiting, another cyclist arrived with same problem, but being young and crazy, he just hopped on his bike, crossed about 3 lanes of very busy traffic and rode on the actual motorway!

Anyways, the long and short of it was, my friendly saviour in red lycra, led me on to another motorway, being a bit careful at some of the entry/exit lanes until we crossed the rather large bridge (and high! puff!) alongside about 3 lanes of peak hour traffic, which led almost to the front door of the L'art Hotel!  Wow!  again!!!  thank you so much!  I asked him where he was going and he just shrugged and with a smile rode off.  Am guessing he had planned to be on this side of river too!  Adventures all around...  

So now I am in smoggy, hot and humid Seoul, but not raining.  After a nice hot shower and a bit of a lay down, I went looking for some food and found a Japanese cafe/restaurant and ordered a rice-filled omelette - ignoring the little bits of pink stuff and finishing it off with a lemonade, not cider although that's what they call sprite...  

All good!  can I be a proper tourist tomorrow - I doubt it, we will see!