Landmarks of Mexico City

I spent only nine nights in Mexico City, and one of those nights was at the airport hotel right before an early-morning flight. I don’t even know whether I should say that I spend nine days or ten days there. :P 

One weekday after work, I went out to explore the area near my hotel, while looking for dinner. 

The nearest landmark to my hotel was the Revolution Monument. 

you can see the slope going down to the entrance. I didn't go in

After that I walked around a bit and discovered a small park, and then returned to the Revolution Monument as it got darker.

there are lights now!

a street leading away from the monument

there are plenty of souvenir stalls near the monument (I don't know why that big doll is there)

Another day, I quickly snapped a photo of the Angel of Independence when we dropped my Israeli colleague off at his hotel. The Angel is in the middle of the roundabout right in front of his hotel (I was going to book the same, but it was full).

There is also a Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, which I discovered by accident when looking for a supermarket.

peeking inside

Right beside it is a wax museum, which is not a Madame Tussauds but a weird one with scary wax pieces (I saw pictures on Google). Not my thing.

Nearby was a rather pretty church.

I only had one weekend there, and with one day spent at Teotihuacan, the remaining day I walked out to the historical center which was about a kilometre away from my hotel. 

On the way there was a yellow horse called Torre Caballito beside a roundabout. (The road where my hotel was is a very big street that has multiple roundabouts) 

After that I reached a park called Alameda Central. This park is quite big, and has so many fountains...I decided not to take photos of everything.

stalls selling both food and souvenirs

a fountain (the lighting in this photo is a little too bright...)

When coming back, there were more people in the park, and children and pets were playing with the water (it was extremely hot!)

Going through the park, I reached the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

on the right is the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Here I am going around the building to reach the square in front of it

the palacio

letting you get a feel of the size of the square (and I wasn't standing fully at the end)

the tower is Mirador Torre Latino, it seems to be a viewpoint over the city

a pedestrian street that takes us all the way to the Zócalo, aka Plaza de la Constitución

on the way I saw this shop, which was interesting because...

...there were pirates in the windows. Haha...

cathedral on one side of the square

view from the opposite side of the square

Gobierno de la Ciudad de México (state government office) on the left

Palacio Nacional (National Palace with federal government offices) on the right

But the best view is the panoramic view. :D 

On the way back, I passed through the park again, but exited through another side, and noticed this monument

Hemiciclo a Benito Juárez

There seems to be some protests going on... :P

On another day, I happened to notice this monument in the middle of yet another roundabout. 

Monument to Cuauhtémoc

I couldn't figure out what it was, but from another angle I could see the "Red Indian" silhouette. Wikipedia tells me that Cuauhtémoc is the last Aztec emperor.

That's it for proper tourism in Mexico... I still have loads of photos of this and that (including food), but all those can be done a little more slowly. I think that I will write about Japan next, before returning to Mexico. Let's get all the tourism done first!