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| Here we are in Mexico City at the famous Castillo or Castle atop the hill in Chapultapec park. It was at times a fort, the President's house, and now a museum of Mexican history. Plus it has cool views of the city. |
Nearly all Mexican buildings are build as a courtyard. Here they have nicely covered it so it can function as a museum in all weather. |
We fell in love with this central stairway surrounded by murals. |
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| School kids finish their tour. |
Attempting to shoot the stairway again. |
This is a very huge patio that runs around 3 side of the east end of the building. |
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| Paseo de la Reforma, the main boulevard to downtown. The 6 pillars are the "Young Heroes" of a battle against US troops. |
This is a finely manicured rooftop garden we also enjoyed photographing. |
My garden does NOT look like this! |
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| The garden had many high-ceiling rooms that opened onto it. Mexicans really do classy architecture. |
This is an example of the wayfinding system in the subway. Icons and color for the illiterate, and the multicolor icons are where you change to other lines indicated by other colors. Very smart. |
So the greatness about courtyard designed buildings is porticos all around. Protection from sun and rain means you can have open doors and windows and cool walkways. This huge courtyard is surrounded by Diego Rivera murals on 3 floors. It was amazing. |
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| Warm colors, neat porticos. |
Fancy dining in the courtyard. |
The courtyard blocks out city bustle and is very relaxing. |
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| City bustle. These streets are taken over by informal markets all day every day. |
More city bustle, taxis everywhere. |
This woman sells nothing but shoelaces at her market stand. |
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| In amongst the retail stands are food vendors and it's all delicious and cheap. |
Another huge government building, open to the public, with porticos around a large courtyard and, again, surrounded by murals on three floors. |
Oh, and this courtyard has a cool garden and nice large shade tree. |
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| mmmmmmm, so far from the city streets. |
A cool modern wing added to the courtyard builing, but retaining access to the sky. |
We took a bicycle taxi to Alameda Park. |
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| Our bicycle taxi. |
Larry likes photographing police officers.... |
... especially police officers on horseback that look like Pancho Villa. |
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| I loved this intergenerational chess gathering. |
The Torre Latinoamerica is looking a little old, built in the early 60s or so. |
Oh my, the palace of fine arts is a cool building. And the inside is completely different from what you would think. |
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| ...it's super Art Deco like Gotham City. |
Looking up at the dome. |
Murals again on the second floor, and a swank dining room below. The building has the main theatre, plus gallery space. |
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| You don't think of Deco when you think of Mexico City, but they built a lot of buildings in the 1920s. |
This is the famous Sanborn's restaurant in the House of Tile. This lunchcounter looks exactly like the 1940s. |
See, even the restaurants are courtyards. It used to be a house, then they covered the center and it's a famous place to eat in the city. |
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The national cathedral on the main square from our favorite 7th floor balcony restaurant |