Hotel Condesa df, Colonia Condesa, Mexico City, Mexico

This hotel is in heart of Mexico City's Art Deco district, nestled among tree-lined streets of purple Jacaranda (like LA).

Avenida Veracruz no. 102

Vintage Chevy

central outdoor dining

breakfast buffet

view of mansion for daughtrer of President Calles

Chapultepec Park, Mexico City, Mexico

Chapultepec ("Grasshopper Hill") Park is the City's largest open space (260 sq. miles).  Montezuma Ilhuicamina built the first aqueduct in 1465 from Chapultepec springs to Tenochtitlán.  Conquistador
Hernán Cortéz destroyed the aqueducts in 1521 to cut off the enemy's water supply.  A castle was built in 1787 to house the leadership but remained empty until 1841.  The castle was nearly destroyed in the US invasion of 1847.  The Monumento a los Niños Héroes commemorates the cadets whose defense cost them their lives.  In 1864 Maximilian von Habsburg made the castle his imperial residence.  With the re-establishment of the republic, the castle was appointed the seat of the president, but Porfirio Díaz was the first to take residence in 1876.  Ultimately it was designated the Museo Nacional de Historia in 1944.

Monumento a los Niños Héroes

Los Lagos

Museo Nacional de Historia

manhole cover

ahuehuete tree

ahuehuete tree

Indian Curry Express, Richmond Hill, New York, New York

Chicken Makhni, Aloo Paratha

Abandoned City Hall Subway Station, Manhattan, New York, New York

One of the hottest tickets in NYC is for the NY Transit Museum tour of the abandoned City Hall subway stop.  Designed by Heins & La Farge in 1904, it was first subway station in NYC, the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), abandoned in 1965 due to poor foot traffic.  Rafael Guastavino was master of tile work.

skylight above vaulted ceilings

Entry platform

View of stairs leading to entry platform

Curved platform unique to NYC subway system, vaulted ceiling echoes platform

John Simko, docent

note original chandeliers

used tile as structural medium, note multiple layers in era when tile purely decorative

marble

Dedication Plaque

vaulted ceilings

Manhattan Municipal Building (McKim, Mead & White) exit

Rafael Guastavino arches

note skylight glass underfoot to secret station below

Gehry building from City Hall

Golden Unicorn, Manhattan, New York, New York

Sesame dessert, amazing, 18 E. Broadway

Macao, Manhattan, New York, New York

display case, antique nudes, opium pipe

Fabulous Asian Fushion, 311 Church St.

Chelsea Thai, Chelsea Market, Manhattan, New York, New York

75 9th Ave