RTW to no-where in particular

[RooFlyer]

The civilisation that built and occupied Teotihuacan is a bit of a mystery. They were not Mayan, but did trade with them. The locals left no writings or descriptive carvings of the type the Mayans did. This site arose about 200 BC and finally collapsed about 750 AD, well before the Aztecs, who began about 1300 AD. The peak was about 450 AD. The city has no fortifications.

Going up the little 'citadel' gave us some practice for climbing the other pyramids:



You walk up the Avenue of the Dead, with each side lined with (reconstructed) dwellings - said to be shops, houses etc.





Only a few remnant carvings are visible. this is a puma (apparently).

 

[RooFlyer]

The Pyramid of the Sun is about 65m high, which doesn't sound much, but its about 350 steps, some of them bloody high! It was completed about 200 AD, and is the third highest pyramid in the world, although only about half the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The name comes from the Aztecs, much later; not much is known about its original use and function, other than religeous etc.

As we walked towards it, it did look big!







I made it with a it of huffing and puffing and the views were worth it:





Pyramid of the Moon.



Then, of course, its down again.

 

[Drakecula]

Some of those steps were steep! Great pics

 

[JohnM]

I thought going down was a bit scary, given the steepness and the height of the steps. I held the wire rope!

Do you think this is what stuffed your back? I know my legs felt it the next day. Different movement from my usual running and gym, I guess.

 

[RooFlyer]

Do you think this is what stuffed your back? I know my legs felt it the next day.

No, I’m learning that the back thing will come on with little apparent reason and go with some medicine. It was ok at the site. I thought I’d feel the legs the next day, but ok!

 

[RooFlyer]

Then it was on to the Pyramid of the Moon - smaller (abt 23m high), and you can only climb about 1/3 the way up:



On the way, they have uncovered a mural of a puma; it was behind a wall:





If anything, the views are better, as the structure is on the axis of the site:

 

[RooFlyer]

Climbing the 2 pyramids was only 1 hour of the three we had on site, which I thought was a bit skew-wiff.

We then moved on to a 'tequila tasting' and souvenir-buying (of course!) and lunch at a place nearby.

The tequila-zone ...





There was a variant ... didn't catch the name, where there is a caterpillar in the bottle; if you get the last pour, you skoll the bug!



This was a center for obsidian (volcanic glass) production. A valuable commodity, as like non-specialised glasses, to can be broken to a very sharp edge. 'Flint' is a poorer quality type of silica.





Full range of souveniers, including made from obsidian (in the original days, it wasn't carved, as it is too hard). These looked interesting



I would have loved to have bought one of the obsidian eggs or coasters but way too expensive.

Then it was lunch - OK - and then a drive back into town. Saturday afternoon traffic, it took almost 90 mins. One thing about Mexico City I found on this ride and also others, is that you rarely can go in any reasonably straight line, because of the one-way streets, and congestion. Don't believe what any app tells you about travel time!!

More of the 'favellas' and also a cable-way built as a low cost transport alternative in the favella areas:





We got back to the pick-up point at about 4pm - a long day (but not finished yet!)

 

[RooFlyer]

The drop-off was close to the Zocolo Square where i had to curtail my wanderings the previous day, so I went back for a look.

Yowsers! The 'activity' that I noticed the day before was now in full swing. It was a promotional event for the various States of Mexico - showing off food and crafts:
















it was getting late in the afternoon, so it wasn't very crowded. But when I started walking towards my hotel, up the main pedestrianised drag, I found where they all went!





These crows went on for well over a km; maybe 2. If there was anyone in Mexico City with the virus, I reckon I would have passed them.

 

[RooFlyer]

Day 3 in Mexico city and I'm flying out to LAX this afternoon. Late check-out allowed me to visit the Anthropology Museum in the morning and then have lunch at the hotel.

I called an Uber, but when I walked out of the hotel, discovered that the main road out the front was closed - apparently this and many others are closed until 1pm every Sunday for runners/walkers/cyclists. The Uber and I eventually found each other and it was another very circuitous route to the museum because of traffic and closed roads. I got him to drop me off abt a km before the Museum, as it looked like a long way around. It was a lovely spring day (1 March - first day of my new QFF year!) and great for a walk.





The museum is absolutely superb and a 'must see' when in Mexico City. Design and contents are world class but unfortunately again, many (most?) exhibits did not have an English explanation - even the 'famous' ones.





Ticket required ( abt A$6.50) and then you walk onto the plaza, which is surrounded by the exhibit halls.





I won't try to explain most of the following - I wasn't reading along much, but like me I hope you enjoy the skill and craftsmanship, as well as the ideas behind the carvings.

First off from the Teotihuacan site I think; the 'feathered serpent' temple that I visited first on site.

 

[RooFlyer]

Most of these are Aztec (or 'Mexicas' as the local variant was called):







Most I think would have heard of the ball games played on Aztec 'courts', where a bad play would result in decapitation ...









The carving in the background of the above shot is the famous Aztec 'Sun Stone'., over 3m in diameter and weighing 24 tonnes; probably carved in the early 1500s.

 

[RooFlyer]

continuing. The above gallery:



One of a couple of carved heads from the Gulf of Mexico region - abt 2m high!





Another nice thing about this museum is most of the ground floor galleries open to the outside - with more exhibits and nice vegetation for walking through:





By this time I think I was in the Maya exhibits (its clearly marked, but I didn't take notes on my pics )



... and return to the Teotihuacan gallery.



I only did the ground floor - or about 50% of the exhibition space. Culture over-load!

I caught the metro back to the hotel; a bit of a walk, mostly through the botanical garden, which features, not surprisingly, cacti and succulents ...





The metro here goes fast! Only 5 pesos per ride - about A$ 40 cents. Most stations seem to have a manned ticket booth - for a few days visit I'd recommend just buying a bunch of tickets at the first time, as the lines can get long, I'm told. There is also a card system, but you have to buy it before entering the ticket hall (again, I read) and it looked complicated on the 2 'how to' videos I watched. Little to no English within the stations.

 

[RooFlyer]

A few more pics of the Hilton. its pretty good - about 3 restaurants, big fitness center and spa, 2 pools (incl lap pool), the Exec Lounge I've covered. The entry level is pretty swish too - a lobby bar and a restaurant off to one side, plus plenty of sitting etc







But the hotel stumbled just before check-out. At 11:30 I was after just a snack to tide me over until I checked in and got to the Admirals Club, probably by 2pm. Snacks menu in the lobby bar starts at 2pm; all the other places are doing only Sunday Brunch

I got a 'hotel taxi' to the airport for 300 pesos (Uber cost abt 200, but with the road closure, they couldn't come to the front, only a block away). Very nice car and chatty driver, extolling the virtues and how green Mexico City was. Lucky we went against the traffic tide and got to the airport in about 30 minutes.



American Airlines check-in is at the far left end of the terminal; it was pretty painless, but then a liong walk to security, which was easy and only a queue of one or 2 in front of me.

Admiral's Club here quite large, with basic buffet (spaghetti, sandwiches, cold cuts etc) and bar - usual US$1 tip/drink.









It was a A319, 2 rows of 2-2 in J; not the greatest for a 3.5 hr flight to LAX, but turned out OK. 3 guys in the cabin appeared to be minor celebrities - band members by the look of it; came loaded with D/F booze, talked loudly and were acknowledged by many people who boarded and walked past.

Meh. Legroom was basic, for J:



Dinner main course was a pasta dish. Pretty awful. Only white was a chardonnay, so I G&T'd it the entire way.



Another painless arrival into LAX - machine read the B1/B2 visa, 2 person queue to the agents looking at the tickets; bit of a wait for bags, then a short queue thru customs; 2 min wait for hotel shuttle, and I was off to Residence Inn by Marriott (even through the bus driver said "I don't do the Marriott" - which confused everyone getting on board!!

 

[RooFlyer]

Residence Inn by Marriott was the
first stop on the shuttle. It’sa bit further away than the start of the hotel strip, but it turned out to be a good choice.

A large corner room withkitchenette.









There was a bit of noise from the runways, as the start of the 2 parallel runways line up with the hotel room:



There a pizza joint, another place and a Starbucks in the same building.

Checkout easy and shuttle back to LAX where QR check in started about 3.5 hrs before departure. Questions about recent travel to China, Iran, Singapore, northern Italy, Korea and Japan were answered no, so checked in OK. Bags checked ask the way to Istanbul but in stopping the night in Doha. Carry on bag well equipped !!

Security was a breeze. No queue at all at 11:00 am ( business/ First) and straight to the QF First lounge for lunch starting at 12:30.



S&P squid of course and a lovely green pea soup.




White was a ‘Stirling’ sav Blanc from the Napa. Abt US$15/ bottle The reds:

 

[RooFlyer]

QR boarding. What a cluster cough* Constant dribble of elderly, pax with family etc etc arrive at the gate, all needing ‘pre boarding’ for 20 mins past boarding time.

Zone 1 queue ( biz etc) more 50 long; zone 2 ( the rest) about 20. Sorry, I have minimal tolerance for this sort of stuff.

oops. Another cart load of special assistance pax has just arrived, 25 mins after we should have started boarding. Wheelchairs will need to go in and out before anyone else goes on board.

 

[RooFlyer]

It got worse ...

They finally started boarding Business; my BP got a red light at the gate. It related to a page I had before - someone wanted to change seats with me. OK, they said, back to the scanner. Another red light. back to the desk. Some furrowed brows, then they re-printed the BP, back to the scanner. Another red light Now I was getting narky. A third go, and it let me through.

But I only got 20 metres to the start of the Business boarding air bridge, as it was chokkers with a stationary queue. And there we stood for about 10 minutes.



Actually, the gents and the kid in front of me in the air bridge queue were seated right behind me - more of them later.

Stop-start after that, eventually got to he the airplane door and there was a FA scanning the BPs again! Apparently some-one's didn't scan properly, and that's why we all waited in the air bridge.

By this time it was almost departure time and I was looking forward to a good stiff G&T as a PDB.

But no, it still got worse ... much worse.

As soon as I entered the Business cabin I was horrified to see, not QSuites ... and not even a A350 without QSuites but still in a 1-2-1 config, which I've enjoyed for years ... but a freak'n 2-2-2 business arrangement Bulkhead in front.





Now, I'm perfectly happy to be tagged spoiled, knowing that many on AFF go whY, but I specifically chose the route, airline and airplane to enjoy QSuites. And now its a cramped set-up and I am stuck against the window, which is my #1 hate in long haul. For various reasons, I get up from my seat a lot and like easy access to my carry-on. Was I pi**ed off? Is the Pope a Catholic?

Then maybe the most pathetic safety video I've ever seen. Qatar owns a soccer team somewhere - Germany, so they were roped in for a 'funny' safety video. It was pathetic.



Anyway, I'm now in Doha Airport Hotel, flying onto Istanbul tomorrow. In flight, on that ill-fated journey, my mood lifted as I got to view the American west unfold beneath me in the afternoon sun, and more of that next.

 

[RooFlyer]

Well with that big whinge out of the way, we took off:



Passed over some solar arrays:





Lake Mead near Vegas



Oops now boarding.

 

[EestiTiger]

You are not wrong about that safety video! I thought surely it isn't that bad - it is...

 

[RooFlyer]

Drinks and warm nut served soon after seat belts off. I went for this Riesling, which was superb:





The American west unfolded beneath us - the Sierra Nevadas, the Basin and Range, and then the Rockies. We were tracking NW (Edit ooops ... NE! ) (Nevada, Arizona, Utah) and would fly over Labrador but south of Greenland.

 

[RooFlyer]

O, the fated flight was QR740, it was a B777-200, as it was scheduled to be, just not fitted out properly!

This was 'lunch' but for me it was dinner, having departed LAX at 14:50. Their 'dine on demand' actually works, but if you don't give them a forecast time you want to eat, it may be 20 mins or so to heat up etc. Works for me.



Everyone knows the finicky way they lay the table; a bit of lobster amuse bouche:



Roast beef appetiser:



... with a malbec:



The codfish main was so nice I scoffed it down before I remembered a pic. On we went:




Night was pretty quick and daybreak saw us over eastern Turkey, where the mountains always impress me.



Brekky menu:



The track took us over Iraq (no surprise there - its QR, after all)



and we landed at Doha just after dusk:

 

[RooFlyer]

My flight to Istanbul was boarding at 7am the next morning, so with a 17:45 arrival, I reluctantly bit the bullet and paid A$400 for a night at the Oryx hotel air-side, booked through Qantas hotels. It was like the TWA hotel stay - pay a premium for convenience, but I always waned to know what it was like.

I was there about 10 minutes after we de-planed (including transit security - leave everything in the carry-on.... ). its very nice - think Sofitel style - and its just on the one level. No restaurant - but you can order room service, or go to one of the airline lounges or even one of the food joints on the concourse:



The window looks onto the concourse and this room looks through one of the large electronic screens that light up either side of the 'teddy bear' - the pink in the pic after this one. There is a solid wood sliding panel that totally blocks out any light.











It was very nice and totally quiet - as it would want to be!! I got a good 8 hours sleep, making up for the less-than-desirable QR flight.

I went to the Al Morajen Lounge for some juice and a muffin:





... before going to the gate from my flight to Istanbul. Eeek - a bus gate:



They boarded business last which sorta makes sense, although the gate lounge was far less comfortable than being on board. So when all the rabble were on board, our bus took us out to the bird.

The driver, not seeing any signal from the plane, held us on board. Then he stood at the stairs waiting for someone to give him the all clear. Except none of the FAs appeared.

YOO-HOO ... anyone there?