Day 3
A trip to Mexico City won't be complete without visiting the heart of the city, that is the walking tour of Zocalo and the ten acre Historical Centre.
I thought that Mexico City will be difficult to get around because of safety and language barrier, so we opted to book a private day tour with
www.royalcars.com.mx. A guide would be very much helpful leading the way and explaining its history. However, I find the place pretty safe, one can always explore it on your own.
Nationalgeographic.com has a good run down of the places to see in the area.
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| http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/city-guides/mexico-city-walking-tour-3/ |
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| Cathedral Metropolitana (8) |
We started by getting off between the Zocalo, National Palace (7) and Cathedral Metropolitana (8), had a glimpse of Templo Mayor (9) and offered prayers inside Metropolitan Cathedral (8).
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| inside Metropolitan Cathedral (8) |
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| glimpse of templo mayor (9) |
There was heightened security before entering the National Palace (7). Once inside, do check out the courtyard, you wont miss it anyway. The murals of Diego Riviera is the highlight of the National Palace. Our guide was a history major and passionately explained the story of every significant mural inside.
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| lovely courtyard of the National Palace |
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| impressive murals of Diego Riviera inside the National Palace |
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| hallway of the National Palace |
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| Church of la Profesa |
We continued to walk across the Zocalo and walked down the shops along Madero Avenue and Cinco de Mayo while being entertained by mime artists. I was particularly impressed how well dressed some of these artists were.
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| Iturbide Palace turned into a bank |
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| San Francisco Church |
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| Casino Espanol |
Along those avenues, the facade of the old buildings have been preserved and marked with bits of history and just too many to remember. These buildings are now operating as commercial establishments. Along Madero and Callejon de la Condesa Avenue,
Casa de
los Azulejos (4) (House of Tiles) occupied by Sanborns Department
Store,
for lunch. We had a hearty Mexican dish for lunch for about 200 mxn,
the ambience was great, service good but the food was just average.
You're better off to eat in some other place.
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| inside Sanborns Restaurant, at the House of Tiles |
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| the crowd outside the house of tiles |
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| mexican lunch at Sanborns |
We continued the walking tour to Hidalgo Avenue to see the elegantly marbled Palace of Fine Arts (3) and made a quick visit inside. Five hours have passed, we proceeded along Alameda Park and made our way to the Franz Mayer Museum (2). There are a few art pieces at this museum and for me this is not a must see.
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| Palace of Fine Arts |
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| Franz Mayer Museum |
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| the courtyard of Franz Mayer Museum |
A Mexico city tour of the Historical Center is normally a 5 hour walking
tour, we opted for an 8-hour tour to include Chapultepec Park,
Chapultepec Castle and the art deco buildings of Condesa. Guilty of not scrutinizing the itinerary very well, cramping all these in a day can be tiring. After a long walk around the Historical Center, the van met us and drove us to Chapultepec Park, right across the Anthropology Museum. We had a long and quick walk past the Chapultepec Park. We missed the last train up the castle so we had to walk uphill to get to the top and had only a few minutes before closing time.
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| Chapultepec Park |
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| inside Chapultepec Castle |
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| Chapultepec Castle |
If I had to do this all over again, a 5 hour tour of the Historical
Center would be more than enough for the day, the Chapultepec Castle
wasn't worth a visit either. We missed the Anthropology Museum, maybe that is worth a visit before the walking tour of the Historical Center. The National Palace, Metropolitan
Cathedral, Palace of Fine Arts, House of Tiles are amongst the must see. Then spend the rest of time getting lost along Cinco de Mayo and Madero Avenue shopping or sipping coffee. Ooh, this sounds like a better plan, why didn't I thought of that in the first place.
After the tour, we asked our guide to drop us off at Plaza Villa de Madrid, Durango, Colonia Roma. We would have wanted to dine at
Chuchito Perez but we were not able to get a table without prior reservation. We tried our luck again with their branch in Cancun, and I can say it's one of our best meals in Mexico. Nonetheless, we found another restaurant nearby, had good food and booze on our last night in Mexico City,
Read more about Colonia Roma while food tripping with Sabores Mexico.
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