Back to Downton

I was a big fan of the "Downton Abbey" series, and I got Alejandro hooked on the show also.  I bought him the boxed DVD sets of each season to watch in Mexico.  Yes, I know it was a soap opera, but it was a very well-done soap opera.  When the movie sequel to the show came out in the theaters in Mexico, Alejandro and I went to see it, and we enjoyed it.  

While down there on my latest trip, we saw that the second movie, "Downton Abbey - A New Era", was going to premiere in Mexico.  So, on my last weekend there, we went to the Cinemex at a nearby mall to see it.

Although, I enjoyed the movie, I did not think that it was nearly as good as the previous film or the TV series.  The movie is split between two story lines.  The Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith) has inherited a villa in the south of France under mysterious circumstances, and a film company wants to use Downton Abbey to produce their latest silent picture.  The action is very episodic as it goes back and forth in short scenes between France and the Abbey.  By the second half of the movie seems to be more cohesive. However, the dialogue, which was one of the TV series strong points, seemed rather ho-hum.  There are no memorable zingers from Maggie Smith.  The whole plot seems rather contrived, and, in the end, everyone has a happy ending that seems too pat.  Well, a happy ending for everyone except (spoiler alert) the Dowager Countess, who passes away.  With her death, I suspect, the Downton Abbey story has come to an end, and there will be no more sequels to the sequel to the sequel.

If you are a "Downton Abbey" fan, go and see it.  If not, don't bother.

Building Progress

I still have a few posts to write about my most recent trip to Mexico City.

Each time I return I check out the progress of building projects going on throughout the city.

Just a couple blocks from my apartment, on the other side of Insurgentes Avenue from the World Trade Center, work continues on this building which will house a Hyatt Regency Hotel and luxury condos.  The windows have been put in place almost to the top floor.  I wonder if construction will be complete and the hotel open by the time I return in August.

Downtown, work progresses on the Be Grand Reforma, which will be a mixed used, office and residential tower.  When completed it will be 50 stories and 679 feet high, as tall as the World Trade Center, which, for the moment, is the 6th tallest building in Mexico City.

Along the Paseo de la Reforma, the University Club is an exclusive private club housed in one of the old mansions which used to line that boulevard.

Right behind it, the University Tower, a luxury condo building, is taking shape. When completed, it will be 57 stories and 665 feet high.  It is supposed to be completed this year, but I rather doubt that.  

Also along the Paseo de la Reforma, there appears to be no progress at all on the Torre Colón.  The construction area is still surrounded by barricades.  Peeking through the fence, it does not appear that they have even begun excavation of the foundation.  

The proposed tower is supposed to reach a height of 72 floors and 1036 feet, which would make it the tallest building in Mexico City, surpassing the recently completed Torre Mitikah.

While new buildings rise throughout the city, there are some structures that were damaged in the 2017 earthquake that have yet to be torn down.  Along Xola Avenue this government office building was closed due to structural damage.

In fact, for quite a while, the Metrobus station next to it was closed because authorities feared the building might collapse.  The station is open again.  I certainly hope they that decided that the structure is not going fall down on top of it, because I frequently use this station!

Time to Renew

My passport will expire in December of this year.  Now is the longest stretch of time that I am not traveling (my next trip to Mexico is not until August), so it is essential that I renew my passport NOW!  Yesterday, my first full day home, I went to the post office and got the renewal form.

I also had my passport photo taken at the post office.  In the past ten years since I applied for my last passport, they have changed the rules about the photos.  People always complain about the way they look in their passport and driver's license pictures, but I thought my old photo looked fine.  However, you are no longer allowed to wear glasses when the picture is taken, and I do not like the way I look without glasses.

The clerk at the post office told me that it can take as long as eleven weeks to receive the new passport.  That is cutting it rather close, so I am thinking about paying the extra money for an expedited renewal.  

I am also considering applying for a passport card in addition to my renewed passport book.  I have read that visitors to Mexico are supposed carry their passports with them at all times.  I have never done that except if I am travelling outside of Mexico City. I worry about losing it or having it stolen, so I always keep my passport hidden in the apartment, or locked in the hotel safe.  But if I had a passport card in addition to the book, the card would easily fit in my wallet.

So, this weekend, one of my chores will be to carefully read the instructions and fill out the renewal form.  I hope to have the renewal form sent off in the mail next week.

Finally Home

I had a long layover in Houston yesterday.  When arrived there it was a partly sunny day, but as the afternoon progressed it seemed that rain was on the way.

My flight to Cleveland was supposed to begin boarding at 5:55 P.M. and depart at 6:30. The boarding process was delayed by about ten minutes because they were waiting for one of the flight attendants to arrive.  Nevertheless, we seemed that we would be ready to leave at the scheduled time.  Outside, it was starting to rain.  

Then one of the attendants announced that there would be a delay... the pilot's PA system was not working, and a mechanic would have to be called in.  That was only a short delay.  We left the gate about ten minutes late and taxied out onto the runway.  Then the pilot announced that, because of the strong winds with the approaching weather system, it would be necessary for us to use a different runway.  Of course, many other planes had to make the same change, and we had a long wait for our turn to take off.  

At last, we were in the air, however there was a fair amount of turbulence.

At one point as we were starting to go through the clouds, I saw what appeared to be a funnel cloud in the distance.  Unfortunately, I had put my camera away, and did not get it out quickly enough to take a picture of it.   Finally, after we rose above the cloud deck, the flight was smooth.

The weather system forced us to take a different flight path. (I was watching the path on the screen in front of my seat.)  We headed east across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama before heading northward as we came to Georgia. We encountered turbulence once again as we began our descent over Ohio where it was also raining.  Instead of arriving in Cleveland at 10:15 P.M., it was 11:00 P.M. when we finally landed.  My friend Frank, who house-sits for me, was at the baggage claim area waiting for me.  Finally, around 11:45, I was back home.

On the Way Home

I am writing this at Houston International Airport where I have a long layover. 

My flight from Mexico City did not leave until 10:30 A.M., so Alejandro and I did not have to leave his house at such an early hour as on previous trips.  It seemed to be strange to drive to the airport in daylight.  We did however leave early enough that we were able to have a leisurely breakfast in the terminal.  We said our farewell at the security checkpoint, and I proceeded to my gate.  When I got there, I discovered that my flight was delayed by twenty minutes.

Facemasks are still required at the Mexico City airport, and the vast majority of the people were complying with the rules.  Once we boarded however, and the door was closed, we were no longer under Mexico City rules, and masks could be removed.  I was double-masked... a surgical mask over an N-95... and kept my masks on for the entire flight.  The man seated next to me had the sniffles (it's unlikely that he had COVID since all of us had taken a test within the last 24 hours), but I was glad to be masked and protected from whatever bug he might have had.

Mexico City is still under an ozone alert, and the poor air quality was certainly obvious.  The sun was actually shining, but you would never know it from this photo with a dull, gray sky.  It goes without saying that the volcanoes, which on good days would be visible in this direction, were hidden by the smog.

As we took off, the view of the city below was hazy.

We passed over the archaeological site of Teotihuacan.  Even thirty miles north of the city, the view was still obscured by the haze.  You can make out the Pyramid of the Sun in the center, and the main street of the ancient city, the Avenue of the Dead, running diagonally in the photo.

In spite of our late departure, the pilot was able to make up for lost time, and in less than two hours we were descending, and the outskirts of Houston were visible below.  We arrived at the gate just a couple minutes behind schedule.

Once again passing through immigration and customs at Houston was a breeze.  The line passing though security again was not bad, and my flight for Cleveland will leave from the same terminal.  Within thirty minutes of stepping off the plane, I was in the United Club where I will pass the time on my long layover.

Approved to Return

 

Tomorrow I fly home, so of course the first thing on my agenda today was to take a COVID test.  At 8:00 this morning Alejandro and I went to the clinical laboratory located a short distance from his home.  Even though there were quite a few people at the lab, I did not have to wait long before I was called into a separate, small room to be tested.

We went home and had breakfast.  I still had not received an email with the results, so we went back and got a printed sheet.  Even though I feel fine, in a worry-wart corner of my mind, I'm always a bit nervous that I will be an asymptomatic or a false positive.  But of course the test result was negative, and I am free to board my flight tomorrow morning. 

Michelangelo in Mexico

Earlier in this trip I showed you the construction that was underway on the Zócalo, Mexico City's main plaza.  They were building a life-size replica of the Sistine Chapel that was to be open to the public from April 20th until May 19th.  Although admission was free of charge, you had to sign up online for an available time slot.  Alejandro got four tickets for Saturday at 1:40 P.M.  I hoped that the inside was better than the outside, because, frankly, I thought it looked rather tacky, cluttering up the historic plaza with tents that made it look as if the circus had come to town.  

On Saturday afternoon, Alejandro, his sister Sandra, his nephew Ezra, and I got in the car to go downtown.  The drive was not too bad until the last mile where traffic was terribly snarled.  We parked in a parking garage some distance from the Zócalo.  Then we walked at a double fast pace to the plaza fearing that we might not be admitted if we did not arrive on time.  Well, we didn't have to rush.  Apparently you really didn't need to make a reservation.  There was a long line of people who did not have tickets.  Those of us who had tickets were guided to a much shorter line, but even so, we stood around for maybe fifteen minutes before being admitted.

Face masks were required for admission.  Fortunately we were all wearing high quality masks because, in spite of the assurances of the city government, there was absolutely no social distancing.

This exhibition was authorized by the Vatican, and has toured all over the world.  Before entering we were told that photography was forbidden and cell phones must be turned off.  The only place where photography was permitted was in the first tent which contained replicas of pieces of art from the Vatican Museum.  Unfortunately none of these copies were labeled so we had no idea what we were looking at or the artists who did the originals.  This tent was basically just a holding area where we stood around for another fifteen minutes before we were herded into the next tent.

In the next tent we stood and watched a video in Spanish about the history of the Sistine Chapel.  Then we entered the reconstruction of the chapel, a faithful reproduction right down to the candlesticks on the altar.  Thousands of digital photos had been taken of the frescos and printed on the cloth walls and ceiling of the structure to create the illusion of being in the real chapel in the Vatican.  The lights were dim at first, and you couldn't really see the artwork very well.  After everyone was inside, there was a short presentation on Michelangelo's paintings with lights projected on various sections of the artwork.  The lights were then turned on fully, and we had a few minutes to admire the chapel.  It was indeed impressive, although some wrinkles in the fabric walls betrayed the fact that you were not in the real thing.  We didn't have that much time to look at the paintings before we had to leave so that the next group could enter. I suspect that if you are a visitor to the Vatican you are herded in and out without that much time to carefully study Michelangelo's frescos.

From the chapel you then enter a tent where you can buy official souvenirs, and then another larger tent where vendors were selling Mexican products and handicrafts that had nothing to do with the Sistine Chapel. 

Then you go outside where you can pose for photos in front of some pictures of the chapel.

I'm glad that we went, but it really was not a thoroughly satisfying experience.