Soumaya

Finally got to Soumaya in Polanco on Tuesday. It's a new Museum, opened in 2011 and owned by the Carlos Slim Foundation, which houses Sr. Slim's extensive art and artifact collections. It is named for his late wife. It was designed by his son in law, the architect Fernando Romero, and engineered with Frank Gehry and Ove Arup. A fabulous building, clad in aluminium tiles which are angled in places, with a small entrance on one side at the top of a flight of steps. It has been compared to both the Selfridges building in Birmingham and Gehry's Guggenheim in Bilbao and the interior is reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim in Manhattan: a bit like the inside of a snail shell with a spiral ramp going all the way to the sixth floor. The Galleries on each floor are to the inside of this. There's a huge wide staircase made of Italian white marble from the entrance hall to Sala 2 - a huge space containing only 3 Rodin sculptures, including one of the many casts of 'The Thinker'.

Slim's collection has been criticised for 'quantity rather than quality' which I would agree with in part. The works of many well known European Artists are there, but not necessary works in the style for which that artist became famous. I loved the suite of 6 paintings of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden attributed to Brueghel, the Diego Riveras, the huge mural by David Alfaro Sigueiros, as well as his other paintings, but, most of all, the sculptures in the vast airy space of the top floor: especially the 13 by Salvador Dali. When we had done it we took the Metro downtown to Bellas Artes, the Opera House, and walked to the Zocalo: Mexico City's vast central Plaza, which has two huge Cathedrals, the old and the new (Metropolitan: started in 1567 and finished in 1788!) at the north end, and the Palacio Nacional on the east.

This is what Wikipedia says about it: 'The modern Zócalo in Mexico City is 57,600 metres² (240 m × 240 m), making it one of the largest city squares in the world.[4] It is bordered by the Cathedral to the north, the National Palace to the east, the Federal District buildings to the south and the Old Portal de Mercaderes to the west, the Nacional Monte de Piedad building at the north-west corner, with the Templo Mayor site to the northeast, just outside of view. In the center is a flagpole with an enormous Mexican flag ceremoniously raised and lowered each day[1] and carried into the National Palace.[2] There is an entrance to the Metro station "Zócalo" located at the northeast corner of the square but no sign above ground indicates its presence'. I just love strolling through the city looking at the buildings and people watching. It's always busy and noisy: organ grinders with pretend monkeys, traffic police blowing whistles, horns honking - Mexican drivers have NO patience.

The street from Bellas Artes down to the Plaza is now pedestrianised which is good. Strange to see private fully armed Security Guards outside shops - even at the Butcher's stall at the local Market, Central de Abastos, here in Qto - and there were more Police patrolling the streets than I remember from last time. On Tuesday night the four of us went out for dinner to an Argentinian Restaurant, El Diaz, in Claveria for Arrachera - the most scrumptious flank steak. I love it - melt in the mouth - although mine had a zillion calories' worth piled on top: bacon, cheese, ham, peppers, chilis: and proper, proper, really dry chips underneath. B and I had a jug of the Mexican version of Sangria- Clericot - between us. Had a lovely night and I was able to pick up the tab. Have 2 credit cards and 2 debit cards with me: the credit cards were blocked about two weeks ago, even though Santander and Tesco know I'm abroad - shame on them! My Santander debit card I'm afraid to use in case they block it too but the good old Barclays debit is still working, or at least it was on Tuesday night, thank goodness. Back in Queretaro now, more later in the week x