Grand Hotel Ciudad Mexico

Our hotel, the Grand Hotel Ciudad Mexico, is a Belle Epoque hotel built right on the Southwest corner of the Zocalo, also called the Plaza de la Constitucion (Constitution Plaza)

The rooms were nice, or rather nice-ish.

When we checked in the bellboy (complete with the red suit and little bellboy hat) took us up to the room in an old-fashioned elevator that does not have buttons at all - you still needed to use the wheel lever to move it. It was not in general use, but only for when guests check in.

As he was going through the room amenities, he came to the thermostat, and said:

"The thermostat is only for the air conditioning. We don't have heat, so if it is too cold, call the front desk and we will bring you another blanket or a space heater."

Nice! 

The front room, a little sitting room, had REALLY high ceilings. The pillars from the lobby were right in that room.

There was little light in that room, and the only time we used it was when one of us couldn't sleep.

 But you simply could not beat the view.

And the location was also perfect for a short trip. We only took a taxi once, and if I would have planned better (Doreen usually does the restaurant planning) we probably would have been able to walk or bike everywhere we wanted to go. 

 The staff was all very friendly, but sometimes their reach exceeded their grasp.

We asked for help in getting reservations at a fancy restaurant, thinking they has some pull (the place was called Pujols.) No joy, there.

We also wrote about a half dozen post cards and asked if we could buy some stamps. No joy there, either, but one of their folks said that he would drop them off on the way home.

We'll see if they get delivered.

Then on the last day of our stay, we didn't have hot water.

We called down to the front desk, and were told that the maintenance people didn't come up until 7:00, and they would come to the room then.

They came to the room, turned on the water, and noticed it was cold.  They looked under the sink (did they think we turned it off ourselves?) and I told them we had hot water the night before.

They left. 

About 20 minutes later, we had hot water. About 20 minutes after that, the front desk called and said we would have hot water in 20 minutes.

In spite of all that, we are very glad we stayed here.