Mexico City and onwards to Greece

We launched our journey with a brief visit with Alejandra in Coyoacan, one of our favorite parts of Mexico City. We often spend a night in Mexico City before flights to avoid any stress from the unpredictable travel time from SMA (from 3.5-7 hours depending on traffic and construction).

In this case, Bill needed an International Drivers license and, coincidentally, it was available for pick up ONLY in Coyoacán. Very convenient.  And well, it is a very short walk to Oasis Coyoacán, and since I (Pat) always need to shop...

Lunch after some shopping

Coyoacán has  a large number of museums including Frida Kahlo's house, La Casa Azul, as well as  León Trotsky's House. On this trip we first visited  the Museo Nacional de la Acuarela Alfredo Guati Rojo, literally a few steps down the street from Alejandra's house. There was a showing and competition of some very fine works. We were amazed and delighted to see a painting of  Portland Headlight, a renowned lighthouse from Portland Maine. The first prize winner was more traditionally Mexican. 

Portland Headlight

First Place

by Gerardo Arizmendi Echegaray

One evening, we shopped at Casa del Obispo Galeria de Arte Popular in nearby San Angel. This gallery has one of the best collections  of high quality Mexican folk art anywhere.  A perfect stop for Alejandra and Pat to select a gift for Paul, a GSB classmate whom we later visited in Greece (see future posting about Kardamyli).

Casa del Obispo Galeria de Arte Popular 

From there we moved on for dinner at the San Angel Inn, a long time favorite of ours and of Alejandra's. Located in a former monastery, as beautifully decorated  as you might imagine for a special fiesta centered around a lovely courtyard & fountain. The service and cuisine live up to the ambience. We arrived without reservations and the place looked full. Yet they set up a table near the fountain for us.

Sea bass Vercruz Style (one of Bill's favorites)

If we had had more time we could have crossed the street to visit Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo. No matter, interesting as it is, we've been there and can easily return another time.

One morning we enjoyed brunch with Alejandra at Club Campestre. On offer there was a nice fusion of Mexican and international cuisine.

Chilaquiles with Bacon (or maybe cecina, an air dried meat)

Later our wandering took us by the Mercado de Coyoacán. A delightful, colorful market. This is a great market to visit because of the high quality of the products and how beautifully everything is displayed.

Fruit & Vegetables below / Supplies & Toys suspended above

A great selection of moles

It turns out that while we were there, the city of Coyoacán was celebrating its 500th anniversary. Yep, it became formally a city and the first capital of New Spain in 1522 (or maybe 1521). 500 years ago! Actually the city is much older. In the 12th century, a group of Tepanec peopIe migrated there and built on the site of a pre-Columbian settlement. And who knows how old the original settlements were?

Colorful sign in recognition of the 500th anniversary

At the Casa de Cultura Jesus Reyes Heroles there was a special exhibition for the 500 Anniversary celebration. Prior to the Opening Ceremony, we explored the grounds and found this delightful statue. 

"El beso del dragón" (The kiss of the dragon) by Luis E. Nava.

We planned to stay for the opening, but didn't. It involved the traditional half hour (or more) of thanks and recognition of everybody involved with the exhibit, as well as, the folks it honored. I don't think we'll ever really appreciate this part of the traditional Mexican courtesies. Unfortunately it is even harder to appreciate when you are still struggling with basic Spanish, which admittedly we are. 

Then.... we are off to Greece.  

We used FF miles to snag business class seats. The Mexico City to Frankfurt leg was 11 hours or so, but time passed quickly and comfortably. After all, we had very comfortable fully reclining seats. And the food and drink were excellent. Not your normal airplane food. Imagine starters of: Caramelized Peach, Serrano Ham, Cashew Nuts coated with with puffed Amaranth Praline, and Asparagus marinated with Apple Vinaigrette.  

For our mains we both chose: Roasted Sea Bass with Lemon Butter, grilled Baby Corn, Cherry Tomato, fried Basil, Quinoa with Shiitake Mushrooms and sautéed Spring Onions. We each chose a cheese plate for dessert (Cheddar, Chihuahua and Camembert Cheese, with Cranberry Chutney) accompanied by a Jacquart Champagne Brut. Very nice. We also had a nice Cognac (says the girl who claims to not like Cognac). It was Bache Gabrielsen Triple Cask. 

At the lounge in Frankfurt we followed this up with two very fine sparkling wines. Bouvet Saphir Vintage 2019 Brut de Loire Methode Tradionnelle and Saumur Brut Methode Tradionnelle. I'd be delighted to buy some of either if I could find it in Mexico.

A surprising discovery was that across the aisle from us, a young couple with an infant were delivered a crib that was attached to the front of the bulkhead seat. We chatted with them a bit and learned that amazingly they had been upgraded from economy and hadn't even requested it. Wow!

We arrived in Athens shortly after midnight and marked a little time at the nearly deserted airport before heading to the gate for our flight to Santorini at 5 am. 

Arriving in Athens at midnight

Departing Athens for Santorini at 7am

Dave & Shelly had planned to arrive the evening before us; however they suffered a one day delay and did not arrive in Santorini until after we did. Luckily we had scheduled a weeklong stay so we all had ample time for our visit there.

And speaking of time, our range of destinations and sites were all the more interesting due to the time span they represent, extending back so far it is nearly incomprehensible. 

For perspective, we developed a calendar to help us get a sense of when the places & civilizations thrived. The thing that caught us by surprise is that Greece experienced its own "dark ages" period from 1100 - 800 BCE, 1500 or so years before the European Dark Ages (5C - 10C). Actually there is little detail on just how "dark" Greece's Dark Ages were because there is little information re Greek life that survives the period...this seems to be part of the reason for the "Dark Ages" name. (Note: We found quite a range of time periods for the "Events" on our chart. We picked ballpark numbers for simplification. That said, we are quite certain of the last two dates on the Greek timeline.)