Wednesday 13 February 2013

Mexico City Day 1

Not being big city people we probably would have ridden around Mexico City, with the invitation from Garry & Ivonne to come and enjoy their city we took the opportunity to overcome our fears. 

So how to talk about a monster you are scared of only to be befriended by it and even wowed by it.

For anyone in our shoes our advice is make the effort and get into it, whole heartedly.

The only issue we had was when Garry stopped to tank up, I thought what the hell we may as well too, the forecourt was on quite an angle being it was on the hill, if we parked the direction of the arrow the bike would fall straight over so I went in, turned around back to the pump, the attendant got quite upset, then a lady in a Jeep wanted our spot and she got upset.

Gezz I was only gonna top up , given we were in the space first and parked I waved her on to another pump, she got upset at that too .... then the attendant wouldn't turn the pump on, at that point I said come on just let me fill up FFS and we will be gone .... but no that was not on the cards.

The boss man was called over and Garry got involved and the boss man said to the attendant let us fill up despite the bike was pointing the wrong way, I always fill the bike as they seem to spray petrol everywhere when nearing the top ... well he got upset about that too  

Anyway, alls well ended well ..... the most and only drama we ever had filling up!! ... not sure if we will be allowed back in Mexico City 

......Anyway, Day 1, we took the 43 bus and subway into town leaving Maya to have a rest, I would not want to ride into town and this way we didn’t need to worry about our gear either and of course we are humans not bikers.

First stop was the architecture and arts centre called Palacio De Bellas Artes, this building is nothing short of stunning, a QS’s nightmare as it would be expensive to build.





The Cathedral



The inside of the Cathedral ... unreal!!



This building is sinking at one end, see when you line up the columns it is visually seeable





Monster pipe organ



Chinese food was smelling incredibly good amongst plenty of eateries so that won us over for lunch, what a feed!!





In and around town you can use the hire bikes, ride them them park them up.



Check out the spokes on this wheel, you would need a uni degree just to lace it up! groovy machine. 



Walking into the earthquake zone of 85 you can see where the old building still standing today have suffered what can only be described as very large bends, curves and misalignments, in New Zealand they would have been condemned and knocked down, in Mexico they put another metal flashing over it, see this photo showing how bent the building actually is, left hand side of the photo is lined up with the flashing!!.



See the bend in the building



Discovering the old ruins and pyramids beneath the city has been an archaeological win for the city, the building were simply built over the original ones, now they have fenced off the area and are sifting their way through the ruins. 

 

After taking all this in was mind bogglingly deep for me thus bringing on the need of a good coffee fix ... I was rewarded !!!





With the coffee down and smoko over we headed for the Museo Nacional De La Revolucion, we didn’t go to the top as it was outside our budget.



Note the KTM coloured chairs 





From there is was the subway --> Bus 43 --> Wrong 43 Bus --> Ooops, change over to Right 43 Bus --> garryhotel.com ..... home James.

In only a few words it was a very fully day.

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