Go west, young man: 2013 vacation, Day 2

Saturday’s traveling wore us out, so we didn’t bounce up all bright and early this morning to go out and tour.  I got up about 7:00 and wrote yesterday’s post while L and M slept in.  We finally got up, had breakfast, and got into the center of town about 10:00.

The plaza, and the downtown streets in general, are a lot busier and fuller of other tourists than I remember when I was here in 1967 with my grandmother.  A couple of things hadn’t changed, though:  the La Fonda still sat on the corner of the plaza, where it has been since 1922, and the cathedral still stands a block away at the end of San Francisco Street.

For such a Spanish city, the cathedral is awfully French.  It was constructed by Archbp. Jean-Baptiste Lamy, in the style of the French Romanesque churches he had known as a young man.  Unfortunately, Mass was going on when we got to the church, and I couldn’t take any pictures of my own, so we’ll have to go to the Web for pix.  It’s a pity, because the pictures available online don’t do justice to the brightness of the coloring.

After the cathedral, we circled back to the plaza and went into the colonial Governor’s Palace, now a museum.  Photography isn’t permitted inside, but the Indian artisans still sell jewelry under the portál as they’ve done for years.  And people hang out on the plaza, just as they’ve done for years.

M and I were tired of shuffling and standing after the museum, and stood out for having lunch.  We ended up at the Plaza Cafe, an eatery that has been in the same place since 1905 (I ate there in 1967 also).  They had some very good cashew-mole enchiladas.

After lunch L’s knee was bothering her, and we slowly walked the few blocks to the chapel of the Sisters of Loretto convent.  The convent and its associated school closed in 1968, and the building is now used for private functions, but the chapel is intact including a remarkable spiral staircase with a nice legend attached to it, attributing the construction to Saint Joseph.

There was an artists’ market outside the chapel and L and M looked through a couple of the booths, but didn’t find anything they couldn’t live without.

After that we took a trip out into the southeast part of town to a museum district, but didn’t stay long.  M was tired and unhappy and I was just tired, so we gave up and went back to the hotel.  There was a nice view from up on the museum hill.