A Stop at the Korea Postage Stamp Museum

One day last week we had time to get out and about a bit. We started the day with a great walk from post through Itaewon, down through Hannam, and along the Han River. I managed a few pictures along the river's path:

The path runs underneath the elevated highway that was built to keep green space and try to alleviate traffic headed along that route.

We also walked towards the Banpo Bridge, which is featured in the newest Avenger's movie, as are the floating islands just beyond and on the left (they were Helen Cho's science lab in the movie). We'll be visiting them soon to see the water and light show before we leave. It's pretty cool to live just down the street from a scene in a major motion picture!

After our walk, Michael and I headed to Myeongdong to mail some letters and I decided to add a visit the nearby Postage Stamp Museum. You're greeted by a large statue of Young-sik Hong. He is considered the father of the postage stamp and postal service in Korea, which was established in 1884.

Then we headed to the entrance on the left and wound our way downstairs through an outdoor garden.

The museum had some great displays of postal delivery methods over the years (the boy really liked this section and kept coming back to it).

There were mini versions of mailboxes from all over the world.

There were also some interesting examples of mailmen from around the globe.

We found the one for the USA...not sure what's going on with the UK's model...she has issues.

There were TONS of stamp examples - for Korea and elsewhere - too many to share here, but we had some favorites:

We found the Avengers!

Some stamps for the zodiac animals - Year of the Horse, Sheep, Tiger, and Dragon.

There were some fun interactive games amongst the displays - puzzles, electronic coloring

There was even an area dedicated to the world's first postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom's Sir Rowland Hill in 1840.

We had a fun time in a random little museum.  If you'd like to visit, check the map and directions on Korea Ye's post:  Stamp World