The Bell Towers on the Cathedral

Another recommendation from Alfonso was a tour of the bell towers on the Metropolitan Cathedral and, as usual, this was a good recommendation.  The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven (Spanish): Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de la Santísima Virgen María a los cielos) is the largest cathedral in the Americas and seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico. 

It is situated atop the former Aztec  sacred precinct near the Templo Mayor on the northern side of the Plaza de la Constitución in Downtown Mexico City. The cathedral was built in sections from 1573 to 1813 around the original church that was constructed soon after the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlan, eventually replacing it entirely. Spanish architect Claudio de Arciniega planned the construction, drawing inspiration from Gothic cathedrals in Spain.  

^{We bought tickets for the tower tour in the cathedral; not as simple as it sounds.  The ticket seller was quite uninterested in selling tickets and unapologetic that he had no change of any kind.  Too bad.  Can't get a ticket.  But we worked it out.
The two bell towers contain 25 bells the largest of which is named the Santa Maria de Guadalupe and weighs about 13,000 kilos}   

  





^{Our tour guide spoke Spanish so I missed a lot but fortunately, there were some bilingual people on the tour who occasionally clarified things for us.}  The bells ring for different saints days and special occasions or events.  

You can see how the bell has worn away the walls on either side.

 

And the views from up there are terrific. 

The National Palace

The Zocolo

Teotihuacán - The Pyramids

Any visit to Mexico City is not complete without a visit to Teotihuacán, the big pyramids just a bit to the north of CXMX.  Nancy hadn't been there so I did my tour guide duty and took her there one day.  This site is one of the most remarkable in the Western hemisphere for it's size and detail and for the culture that developed there.  For details:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotihuacan 

Avenue of the Dead

Pyramid of the Sun, 

no mean feat to climb in the hot mid-day sun but the views are great.

Pyramid of the Moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TJ-wal2SHc

 After about three hours we'd had our fill.  You can see, it's a very exposed site, the sun is intense there and, given it's size, it requires a lot of walking.  The numbers and aggressiveness of the vendors gets tiresome as well so we decided we'd had enough and made the long walk back to where we could get a cab.  

When we were planning this trip and talking to Alfonso about it, he strongly suggested that we go into in San Juan Teotihuacan de Arista, the town adjacent to the ruins for lunch at La Gruta, a legendary restaurant in a cave.  It goes back a long ways and was frequented by artists like Diego and Frida and Hollywood actors and dignitaries, even Queen Elizabeth II.  http://www.lagruta.mx/#gruta  So we got a taxi to the restaurant and it didn't disappoint.  A most unusual place.

CDMX - Chapultepec Castle

Chapultepec Castle is built atop Chapultepec Hill on the south side of Mexico City and, to quote Wikipedia:  The name Chapultepec stems from the Nahuatl word chapoltepēc which means "at the grasshopper's hill".  In 1785 Viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez ordered the construction of a stately home for himself at the highest point of Chapultepec Hill.  It is located in the middle of Chapultepec Park in Mexico City at a height of 2,325 meters (7,628 ft) above sea level. The site of the hill was a sacred place for Aztecs, and the buildings atop it have served several purposes during its history, including that of Military Academy, Imperial residence, Presidential home, observatory, and presently, the National Museum of History.  It is the only royal castle in North America that was actually used as the residence of a sovereign: the Mexican Emperor Maximillan I, and his consort Empress Carlota, lived there during the The Second Mexican Empire. It's really a complete day's outing there's so much to see in the castle.  

 

 

 

 

Views from the castle down Paseo de la Reforma to the Angel de la Independencia

CDMX - Tenayuca/Biblioteca Vasconcelos

For some time Alfonso had been promising to take me to visit Tenayuca, an archaeological site within Mexico City constructed around 1224.  Tenayuca is considered to be the earliest capital city of the Chichimec, nomadic tribes who migrated and settled in the Valley of Mexico, where they formed their own kingdoms.  Getting to the site by MetroBus gives one an appreciation for the size of the city as we transfer a couple of times and ride for a long time.  This site is little known and we were the only visitors.  In fact, the entrance was locked and we had to get the attention of the guard, to let us in.  It's a nice little site with some unique features such as the predominant use of the snake image. Peculiar that it's not on the tourist track.

 Alfonso

They hadn't bothered to turn the lights on in the museum but there was enough natural light to see some of the exhibits.  A modest collection.

Another attraction that Alfonso thought I'd like to see is the Biblioteca (library) Vasconceles, dubbed the Megalibrary by the press, completed in 2006 to the tune of about US$98 million and covering 38,000 sq meters. It's an impressive and unusual library and is about as state of the art as you can get technologically.  

 The stacks

The library is located at a major transportation hub where many MetroBus routes connect, there's a subway stop and the terminal for a commuter train that I had never heard of: the Suburban Railway of the Valley of Mexico Metropolitan Area (Spanish: Ferrocarril Suburbano de la Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México)  It is designed to complement the extensive Mexico City metro  system, Latin America's largest and busiest urban rail network.  It carries around 184,000 riders per day and there are plans to expand it.

Yet another spin on Uber: