The Cross-Country Route, from Incheon to Busan, follows a series of cycling paths and picturesque country roads from South Korea’s northwest to the southeast tip of the peninsula. Korea’s Bicycle Certification System allows cyclists to document their journey across the country’s extensive bicycle paths. Hence, the process for us entailed:
- We needed to purchase a Bike Passport from a management center located at the start of the Cross Country route.
- We then needed to locate the red phone booths, known as Certification Centers, along our route. In each to these phone booth is an unique stamp used to mark our Bike Passport.
- After collecting all 29 stamps along the way, we need to bring it to a management center where our Bike Passport will be reviewed and certified.
2024.04.10 – [KR] Seoul (Gangnam) ==> Gimpo (44 kms | Total: 103 kms)
We had breakfast in our room again before packing up our bicycle panniers. We loaded the tandem and took a few customary pictures marking the start of our cycling journey. We retraced our route along the sidewalk up to the bridge we crossed on our first cycling day to return to our hotel. We noticed a lot less pedestrian and car traffic. We had learned that it was election day in South Korea today but we did not realize that it was a holiday for most folks. Even crossing the bridge over the Han river was much easier than we recalled as it was a few days ago. As a trivia item, we learned there were 27 bridges spanning the Han River in the Seoul National Capital Area. Once we crossed the river, we took an elevator down to the bicycle path. We took the time to locate and familiarize ourselves with a nearby Certification Center. We resumed our cycling on a wide and well-designed bicycle path which included their own series of round about intersections. On our last 6kms, we had to leave the bicycle path and cycle on sidewalks and roads to reach our hotel. We had a nice and great value dinner at a nearby Japanese Urban Bistro.
2024.04.11 – [KR] Gimpo ==> Yeouido (57 kms | Total: 159 kms)
It seemed our jet lag was still hindering our sleep pattern. We started our day with our hotel’s complimentary breakfast – a nice perk not often found at Korean hotels. When we stepped out of the hotel, we realized a very light drizzle was coming down. We had to cycle 5kms on sidewalks and streets before reaching the bicycle path further upstream. Our last hurdle to reach our bicycle path was navigating another elevator which brought us atop of a tall bridge. After crossing the river, we repeated the process to go down to the bicycle path. After 20 kms, we finally reached the Bicycle Certification management center where we purchased our Bicycle Passport. Outside the center, we met a young couple from Shanghai riding their high performance carbon bicycles (Pinarello Dogma). Jenny was pleased to have the opportunity to exchange briefly with the couple. They were intrigued by our tandem setup. We left the center with Jenny having just added another WeChat contact. We finally got to stamp our Bicycle Passport at a nearby Certification Centers which marked the start of the Cross Country bicycle route. We managed to collect two additional stamps before reaching our hotel. We had dinner at a nearby steak restaurant.
2024.04.12 – [KR] Yeouido ==> Hanam (40 kms | Total: 199 kms)
We had a laid back morning since our hotel check-in today started only at 4:00pm and we had a fairly short cycling day (~40kms), hence we stayed at our hotel until 11am. We had breakfast in our room after picking up some pastries from a coffee shop located in the nearby underground subway station. After leaving our hotel, we resumed riding on the wide bicycle path along the Han river. After 15kms of riding we stopped and unloaded the panniers from the tandem in order to lighten the load to get to the Certification Center located across the river. Jenny stayed with our luggage while I rode across the bridge to stamp our Bike Passport. We collected another stamp after another 15kms. We stopped at a 7-Eleven for some snacks and rest while ensuring we didn’t show up too earlier at our hotel. Towards the end of our day, we were sadden to see the Cherry blossom trees had already lost most of their splendors. Less than 4 days ago, we had cycled the same path and we were amazed by the blooming trees. We did not even stop for any pictures. As we still arrived too early in town, we stopped at a McDonald’s for some snacks and drinks. We were relieved that our hotel room was ready when we showed up. In the evening, we had a good filling meal at nearby family-run restaurant.
2024.04.13 – [KR] Hanam ==> Yeoju (68 kms | Total: 268 kms)
We enjoyed our hotel’s small complementary breakfast before loading the tandem and leaving behind the suburb of Seoul. The Korean cyclists were out in full force enjoying their Saturday morning. We had never known that cycling was so popular in Korea, it clearly appeared to surpass the cycling culture of Europe. Just when we expected to have a steep climb ahead of us, we were surprised to be able to cycle through a tunnel thus eliminating our route’s profile peak. We rode through 10 or so tunnels along the way which made our long cycling day more manageable. But just like every good thing comes to an end, we had to walk one long steep hill. We arrived at our hotel shortly after 3:00pm. As our online hotel reservation indicated check-in started only at 6:00pm, we were pleased when the lady at the reception gave us our room key promptly. For dinner, we had a long walk back into town center and found another soup/noodle mom and pop restaurant. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at convenience store to purchase breakfast supplies.
2024.04.14 – [KR] Yeoju ==> Chungju (63 kms | Total: 330 kms)
We had a light breakfast in our room before hitting the road. We got to cycle a lot more on a shared road today – probably 50% of the time. The temperature was higher than yesterday at 28C but the headwind made it feel slightly cooler. Sadly the headwind made us work much harder. Our route brought us into a more remote area but we still saw a regular flow of local cyclists. We noticed Korean appeared to really enjoy the Great outdoor, namely camping. At our second Certification Centers, we took a long break and devoured an iced plum juice and some meat dumplings at the cafe on-site. We realized after having our juice that the countryside trees we had been admiring were in fact flowering plumb trees. We arrived at our hotel at 3:15pm somewhat exhausted. Nonetheless we were encouraged by tomorrow’s day of rest. The hotel reception informed us that snacks were available in the breakfast room. We took advantage of the offering to the point we did not need to go out for dinner. We were also able to use the hotel’s clothes washing machine for free. While Jenny was following up on the wash, I did some maintenance on the tandem.
2024.04.15 – [KR] Chungju ==> Chungju (25 kms | Total: 355 kms)
We both had a good night sleep. We returned to the hotel’s breakfast room for a relaxing start to our first day of rest of our cycling journey. We had originally planned to visit two Certification Centers together in order to stamp our Bike passport. Unfortunately, the weather forecast called for rain all day. As Jenny didn’t like to get wet, I sent out by myself on the tandem to get our two stamps. Just as I reached the 2nd furthest Certification Center, the rain started to come down heavily. Needless to say, 12 kms later, I was completely soaked upon my arrival back at the hotel. We rested (well… prepared our blog post) in our room for the rest of the day listening to the rain shower. As the rain stopped in the evening, we walked the streets around our hotel in search of a place offering moderately priced meals. We’ve learned that there were simply too many small restaurants to be recorded in Google Maps or local Naver Map or KakaoMap.
