While I was in Seoul, one of the places I had the chance to visit was Lotte Tower. This is the tallest building in all of South Korea, the fifth tallest in the world.

Yeah…. it was that awesome.

Ok, sure, it’s a tourist trap – I get that.  Shush! I AM (was?) a tourist!!

So first and foremost, Lotte is a brand name in Korea, and they have… god, everything. In fact, where Lotte Tower is located, they owned the whole plaza.  No, guys… The whole plaza…

Here’s a pic from the base of this monstrosity.  I’m pretty sure I hurt my neck trying to snap this one…

They’ve got random pieces of art (because who doesn’t love art?) and while we were there, they were setting up for a concert.  I have no idea who was playing, but that’s rather beside the point.

      

Just behind the Lotte Tower is a lovely lake, complete with walking path.  Not sure if the lake is manmade or natural, but doesn’t matter – it’s beautiful. Cherry blossoms line the walkway, though it was too early for the blooms to be out, I could see the start of them. If I had gone to Seoul just two weeks later, they would have been magnificent.  Doesn’t matter – it was a gorgeous walk, and that was even before I got INTO the building!

Because having the largest building in the country as well as all the surrounding malls and skyscrapers are clearly not enough, they also built their own theme park.

Yep. They seriously went all-out for this plaza. I was suitably impressed before I even walked through the front doors.

So, I was here with a friend of mine who lives in Seoul. She admitted she had never before visited the Tower – it was definitely a tourist-trap – and when I was getting a ticket, she bowed out.  Something about having no desire to be quite that high in the air.

See how I did it anyway?

After I got my ticket, it was time for my favorite part… waiting in line (*le sigh*). HOWEVER!!  Unlike most places, Lotte Tower at least understands how miserable this is, and they had a little show waiting for us on the ceiling as we waited at the base of the tower…

       

Yeah, it was pretty awesome.

And you know those other skyscrapers in the plaza?  Here’s a better peek at them for ya…

What about the theme park and the lake?  Need a better view of those, too? I can see how they were difficult to get a full feel of…

At the very top, I swear, I could see all off Seoul, and it was a truly breath-taking view.

Here, we have the Han River – both sides of it from the Tower:

  

The mountains in the distance…

And the sprawl of the city itself all around.

Just how high up was I? Well, this was taken from one of the outside decks…

My favorite, though?  Being able to literally look down with the city directly beneath me.  Yowsa…

I took a ton more pictures than this but figured you’d get bored with seeing much the same. I loved it, however, and would absolutely go again! Because I was trying to make it where folks felt like they were there with me, I have another video for your viewing pleasure. There’s a bit of shaky-cam (sorry!)