Although I had been there before in 1997, I count my trip in 2014 as my first proper visit to Mexico City. From my earlier trip, I only remembered the Zocalo and some unremarkable grey buildings. This time I wanted to taste something from each period: the Aztec Templo Mayor, the Spanish-colonial Cathedral and the 20th-century Palace of Fine Arts, and Diego Riviera murals. I started my day of sightseeing at the Zocalo. It was the scene of a demonstration, as on most of its days. To my surprise though the middle of the square had been turned into a Winter Wonderland, where Mexicans rode sleighs from an artificial snow slope and (even more funny when you're Dutch) tried to master an ice skating rink.

The Cathedral provided a much-needed place of quietude. I liked its facade (and that of its neighbour Sagrario Metropolitano), which is a textbook example of the Churrigueresque style. The interior is extremely baroque too, with lots of gold and bleeding Christ statues. It's worth a look, but both Cathedral and Zocalo would not get my vote for WH status. The historic center is 'just' a working city with many modern buildings too. I think it has more Starbucks cafes than there are in the Netherlands in total.

I could not remember whether I had visited the Templo Mayor on my previous visit. But after I entered its gate I was sure that I mysteriously had missed out on that in 1997. To me, it is THE highlight of the city, and worthy of WH status by itself. Somehow I had always thought that the remains were just some piles of archeological rubble. But several original statues, reliefs and temple constructions can be seen in situ, some even in their original colours. All have information panels in both Spanish and English. It's a lovely site with an entrance fee of a mere 3 EUR, which includes the excellent adjacent museum. The museum probably is even better than the archeological site itself: in bright and modern presentations, it shows the found objects of the Templo Mayor in 8 exhibition rooms. I don't think there's a single uninteresting object among them.

I had a good day already, but I wanted to finish it with some of the famous murals. First I went to the Palace of Fine Arts. Although it was possible to enter the main (art nouveau) hall, the rest was off-limits to me. The murals are not on display at the moment and are covered in plastic. Fortunately, I got another chance nearby: at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera his 'Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Central', portraying figures from Mexican history, is shown. I had the masterpiece all to myself, and spent some time checking out 'Who is Who'.