Random Photos Downtown

Here are some pictures I took while Alejandro and I wandered around the "Centro Histórico" on my last weekend in Mexico City...

New and Old

The 20th century Latin American Tower soars above the 18th century mansion known as the "House of Tiles".

More old and new...

A "7-Eleven" convenience store is housed on the ground floor of one of the many beautiful old buildings in the Historic Center.  This structure probably dates from the late 1800s.

Sculptural details on another lovely old building

This must be a new business.  I had not seen this cookie shop along Madero Street before.  Notice the slogan (in English!) on the boxes... "Welcome to the Anti Diet Club".

Alejandro and I managed to resist temptation.

A vendor selling grapes, blackberries, raspberries and cherries from the back of his truck

There is a four-story Adidas store on Madero Street.

We were drawn in by the window displays of the official Mexican team shirt for this year's World Cup.  The shirt is cool, but it costs 90 U.S. dollars.  No, I'll pass.

Alejandro needed to use the restroom, so we popped into the original, downtown branch of "Palacio de Hierro", Mexico City's ritziest department store chain.

This store was built in 1881 and sought to emulate the elegant department stores of Paris, New York and London.

Because it was the first building in Mexico City to be built of iron and steel, the nickname "Palacio de Hierro" (Palace of Iron) stuck and became the name of the store.

The original store features two French, stained glass ceilings.