Day 25 Mexico City

Woke in my lovely comfy bed and we went down for breakfast and it was wonderful to have delicious fresh fruit, which consisted more than over ripe watermelon/ pineapple and grapefruit. This fruit salad consisted of cantaloupe, strawberries, mango and watermelon. Yum. (Heather and I were constantly amazed that we saw SO much fruit growing in Cuba but the quality of fruit on the menus was usually appalling.)

What wasn’t good as Cuba was the tea. The hot water was in an urn that had obviously been used for coffee and that was the taste you got. Coffee flavoured tea.

That is one thing that is very hard to get used to is their currency. Currently the exchange rate is about $1 AUS to $14 MEX. So you have bills of $250 for breakfast. Or $64 for two cups of tea!

On the way in the taxi

Nice taxi to the Zocalo area and we began our adventures of trying to cross the roads over here. “Slightly” daunting. The green man does not always mean it is safe to cross. 

We went into the Cathedral. This time I was allowed right inside and it was fantastic. It is most impressive. All they need to do now is to clean the outside to its former glory and it will absolutely amazing.

one of the altars

After our church visit it was off to find "The Gran Hotel Cuidad de Mexico” Originally constructed in 1899, designed in the lavish Art Nouveau with incredible stained glass ceiling designed by Jacques Gruber.  Stunning doesn’t do it justice and then there was the intricate staircase and elevator screen. We went in to have a cup of tea and Heather ordered an opera cake as well. All very impressive. The tea was just delicious.

part of the ceiling

one of the central designs!

However as we were being very refined, sipping our tea, we suddenly noticed the riot police running along the pavement outside. Followed by police cars and army trucks. No one seemed at all concerned? Apparently the Government office is just across the square and there are demonstrations every day. We left and crossed over to the square to get a good look at what was happening. There were more than 100 police in various uniforms guarding several section of the Government buildings in the square. We couldn’t see any demonstrators.

Off to find the hop on hop off bus. We opted for the three hour ride through the town- in retrospect one hour might have been enough. We did see a lot but we also travelled down some fairly ordinary sections and many times doubling back on our tracks. Finally at one stop by a very large modern complex we got off. It was close to 3pm and we hadn’t had lunch. I had a salad and Heather had spaghetti. We followed that with a gelato and then had a walk around the centre, before catching another taxi home to the hotel. 

Up to our room to dump things then out again on a mission to find fruit. We asked the receptionist who gave us a map and the worst instructions ever. We ended up asking everyone we met on a street corner and finally found a HUGE supermarket where I bought a few apples and bananas. The store was very similar to the one in Ensenada. 

Backtracked to find our way home- not following her instructions and had a cup of tea in the café outside. Delicious. 

Up in our room we both worked on our diary and the rain came down! We have been incredibly lucky with the weather. They had four days of rain before we arrived. We listened to the American news about Orlando. Only once did one man suggest that the gun laws needed to be changed to prohibit the use of assault weapons and he was howled down! Sadly the bias of the news was strongly anti- terrorist/ anti- Islamic and nothing about gun laws.