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| Our Hostel situated in
the heart of the old section of Mexico City had a wonderful rooftop cafe
where a free breakfast was served every morning. The view as you see was
fantastic with the oldest Cathedral in Mexico on our doorstep. We could
have spent a month here perusing the old architecture, museums and
historical sites all within walking distance. |
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The Cathedrals here where richly
decorated inside and out. This is just one of the entrances to this
building and usually each one was very differently sculpted. Some of
these edifices took up to 250 years to complete. Wow! |
| Each of the churches had a unique
style and would place emphasis on a different art form. Some had
fabulous paintings hanging on the walls, others would have extremely
finely sculpted statues. |
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The altars were all incredibly
ornate and again each would have it's own unique style. We never passed
up the opportunity to pop inside a cathedral because we knew we would
see something new. |
| Literally every street corner had a
cathedral sometimes two. A lot of the decorations where gold leaf and
precious items were everywhere. |
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The photo here does not do the size
of this organ justice. You can see the doorway on the bottom left for
some idea. This was just a portion of the whole contraption. Behind this
bank of pipes was two more banks and the keyboard. |
| Here you see the National Theater
building which was relatively new but holding true to the style of the
architecture all around it. The city is rife with statues with a great
many of them depicting one revolution or another. |
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Inside the central courtyard of one
of the many Government buildings. The walls inside the second floor were
totally covered with rich paintings of Mexico's struggles since the
Spanish arrived. |
| The Mexicans love fountains and you
will see them everywhere you go. We enjoyed many breaks to rest our
aching feet by the side of fountains such as this. |
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The postal service in Mexico is slow
and no wonder. We saw workers inside this building sorting mail by hand.
Imagine working inside this place! |
| Yet another view of the Postal
Building with it's richly ornate stairway. |
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Taking a walk down this stairway
inside the bell tower of one of the Cathedrals was an experience to
remember. |
| On the roof of a Cathedral this
staircase spiraled down. Got my feet into this one. |
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Once again inside a bell tower and
the massive wooden spiral staircase leading up to the top most bells.
You can see the ropes that are still used to operate the bells. |
| In the foreground is an ancient
Aztec ruin that was found in the heart of Mexico City under a building.
The Cathedral in the background was purposely built on top of another
Aztec ruin and is now permanently buried. |
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On the roof of the castle on top of
the hill in Chapultepec Park. All the rooms in this castle have been
preserved as they were in the 1800's and early 1900's complete with all
the original furniture, paintings, table settings etc... |
| Rich paintings adorn so many walls
and ceilings of old buildings in the city depicting people caught up in
revolutions. |
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