Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
In the east of Ciudad de México you’ll find Chapultepec, the hill of the grasshoppers. It is a large garden and an important recreation zone for the people living in this vast capital city. It was a settlement area of the early cultures of the Toltecs and Aztecs. Today it contains a lake with many restaurants, a zoological garden, a botanical garden, a castle and lots of museums – including the famous Museo Nacional de Antropologia.
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Do you remember the opening scene of Spectre by Sam Mendes? When Daniel Craig as James Bond hunts terrorists on the Día de los Muertos in Ciudad de México? The filming location was the Plaza de la Constitución, most often referred to as the Zócalo. It is the main square of the city and a tradition of colonial times: Latin American cities all have such a central square (that is most often called Plaza de Armas). In CDMX this place once hosted a memorial for Spanish king Carlos IV during colonial times which was removed after the Mexican independence and only the base or socket (Spanish: Zócalo) remained.
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I’m an absolute fan of public transport. I’m happy not to own a car and glad to be able to get nearly everywhere in Germany by trains and busses. When I’m on the go I always need to check out the local means of transport; whether its trolley busses, tramways, subways or cable cars. Ciudad de México was the first city in the world that made me search for a taxi or order an Uber car instead.
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Due to a change in the flight schedule of Aeroméxico we had 25 hours of layover in Ciudad de México. The perfect option to have a look on the capital city and to warm up with Latin America. But where to spend the night? There are two hotels inside the airport building, but staying there is costly and you probably can’t get out of the hotel easily. Fortunately, there is the Fiesta Inn close to terminal 1.
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The international airport of Ciudad de México (MEX) is named after Mexican president Benito Juárez and has one specialty: it is very close to the city and only 6.5 kilometers afar from the Zócalo. The airport was opened in 1931, has two runways and two terminals (terminal 1 is for international flights, terminal 2 for domestic and local flights). If you have tickets for a connecting flight you can change between both terminals using a train that is running around the airport.
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If you’re going on a business trip to Frankfurt you can decide to do it the standard way and sleep in a shiny modern business hotel. Or you go for the crazy option and book the 25hours close to the main railway station. Yes, the red light district is not far and the atmosphere surrounding the hotel isn’t the best – but the hotel compensates that with lovely decorations, unusual facilities and great food.
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When you’re at Göttingen and want to see some animals, you don’t have too many options: the next zoological gardens are at Hannover and Frankfurt and the city just has the Kehr with some deer, wild boars and squirrels. A good option is the amazing Tierpark Sababurg at Hofgeismar, belonging to Hesse. But there is also an underrated option not far away: the Wildpark Hardegsen. It is owned by the small city of Hardegsen (7,500 inhabitants) and you don’t have to pay an entrance fee.
Continue reading “One hundred forty steps”
Bad weather at Bamberg? Don’t worry! The city has a good natural history museum with one of the most beautiful ancient presentation rooms (the Vogelsaal) I’ve ever seen. This special room once belonging to the university was finished in 1810 and is still in its original state. It was formerly used to teach biology and hosts are large collection of birds.
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The Neue Residenz is an impressive ancient building close to the cathedral of Bamberg. It was the residence of the bishops from 1604 on and replaced the Alte Hofhaltung on the opposite side of the street in this function. The building consists of two sections, one in Renaissance and one in Baroque style. From 1803 on the Neue Residenz became a home of the Bavarian kings when Bavaria expropriated church property on a large scale.
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Next to the cathedral of Bamberg you can find the Alte Hofhaltung, the residence of the bishops. It was built in the 15th century CE but the area was used by rulers much longer than that: the direct predecessor was an imperial palace (a so called Kaiserpfalz) built by Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor. Today it is a beautiful, quiet place and you can relax in its inner courtyard.
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