Glass, Leonardo Da Vinci and South Korea, Oh My!

There are a ton of pictures in this post. Consider yourself warned ;)

I am happy to report that any residual issues I had with driving were completely resolved today. I was even able to listen to the radio! My first stop this morning was the O'Sulloc Tea Museum. The museum was a bit of a disappointment. It was really more of a gift shop than it was a museum. However, the tea fields were lovely! I was able to walk around the fields and smell the tea and listen to the birds. The fields were quite large. 

After I left the tea fields, I went to the Glass Castle. This is one of the newer tourist attractions in Jeju Island. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was so much fun! When I walked up to the museum, there was this whole underwater scene made from recycled glass bottles.

Immediately after you walked in, there was a giant bejeweled bean stalk. I don't know if this was the intention or not, but it definitely reminded me of Jack and the Beanstalk. It was probably 40 feet tall, and all made out of glass. 

Even the jewels are made from glass.

Outside there was some rather nice scenery. All of this is natural and glass free. 

In one of the exhibit halls, they had a tiny orchestra made from glass. 

Each little figuring was only an inch or two tall. 

They had quite funny expressions though!

And, because this is still Korea, there was a large tray of glass bean sprouts. You can buy bean sprouts out of containers like this on any street in Seoul. 

This was a glass museum, so of course there were glass slippers.

There isn't much glass in this, but I thought it was interesting. It was called "A Fool's Tears". 

There was a pyramid (made from glass) that acted as a compass. Each direction was represented by a spirit animal. This dragon represents East. 

There were a few cafe style tables that were set with different kinds of glassware. 

I want a dancing cup! But they didn't have any in the gift shop. 

There were small, helpful fairies to help direct you to each point in the museum. 

The handles on all of the doors were the recycled bottle fish!

These are bathrooms. Be sure you click on that picture to make it larger. It amused me a great deal!

There were a variety of kinds of fruit, flowers and produce, all made out of glass. 

When I left the museum, these giant glass fairies were bowing to say "thanks for coming".

I'd heard about a new museum that just opened last month, but it wasn't in my GPS, and it wasn't on any of my maps. I had tried to find it, but wasn't having any luck at all, so I eventually just gave up. I was driving somewhere when I happened to come across the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum, which was exactly what I was looking for! It had real size, working models of a lot of Da Vinci's crazy inventions! 

He made a pair of robotic arms, controlled with ropes. 

Then he expanded it into a full body. It was pretty crazy. 

There was a rescue system that also doubled as defense in a raid or attack. 

And the first fire escape!

We can thank Leonardo Da Vinci for life vests and inner tubes. 

These are the water skis that make a cameo in the movie "Ever After"

The first working pulley system.

Pliers and tongs that increased the strength with which they gripped an object the heavier the object got. 

Leonardo Da Vinci invented a working backhoe. Who knew??

I also didn't know that he was the person who came up with the whole idea of chains. 

Which he then used in his prototype for a bicycle. 

I wasn't entirely sure what a mirror room was doing in this museum, but it was pretty cool!

This is just a random vase I saw sitting somewhere. 

I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't want to meet this horse in a dark alley!