BootsnAll Travel Network



TEFL Teacher Get Together

It’s been some months, so it was time to host another outing for the foreign teachers working in Mexico City.

This time ’round, we chose the Franz Mayer Museum in the Historic Center of Mexico City.

Franz Mayer Museum

Frommer’s Review


One of the capital’s foremost museums, the Franz Mayer Museum opened in 1986 in a beautifully restored 16th-century building on Plaza de la Santa Veracruz on the north side of La Alameda. The extraordinary 10,000-piece collection of antiques, mostly Mexican objects from the 16th through 19th centuries, was amassed by one man: Franz Mayer. A German immigrant, he adopted Mexico as his home in 1905 and grew rich here. Before his death in 1975, Mayer bequeathed the collection to the country and arranged for its permanent display through a trust with the Banco Nacional. The pieces, mostly utilitarian objects (as opposed to pure art objects), include inlaid and richly carved furniture; an enormous collection of Talavera pottery; gold and silver religious pieces; sculptures; tapestries; rare watches and clocks (the oldest is a 1680 lantern clock); wrought iron; old-master paintings from Europe and Mexico; and 770 Don Quixote volumes, many of which are rare editions or typographically unique. There’s so much here that it may take two visits to absorb it. In the central courtyard, a pleasant cafe serves coffee and light snacks.

Franz Mayer Courtyard

Our teacher get-togethers often find us in new and exciting places in Mexico City…well, usually a bar.  I thought it might be a good idea to inject a little class into this one.  Five of our long time TEFL teachers made it out for the Sunday afternoon affair.

TEFL crew

The museum featured a fine display of high crafted silverworks…the likes of which I’ve never seen in Mexico.

silver

silver

silver

silver

silver

silver

silver

silver

silver

The permanent displays include a number of 16th century items such as furniture, paintings, sculptures, and many religious items related to this period in Mexican history.

Franz Mayer

Franz Mayer

Franz Mayer

And of course, the grounds and the cafe were a superb respite from the hustle of Mexico City’s urban crush.

Franz Mayer

Franz Mayer

Franz Mayer



Tags: , , , ,

-13 responses to “TEFL Teacher Get Together”

  1. MR says:

    Very nice photos Guy!!!

    You know more about Mexico than even mexicans!!

    Thank you for sharing beautiful places!

  2. admin says:

    Mexico is a land of beautiful photos and images, from her art, to her people, and to her mountainous landscape.

  3. MR says:

    Your comments are nice, I dare to say that you love “Mexico”, however it is very sad to see how the image of Mexico as a “brand country” has been diminishing over the time.

    Sometimes it is very depressing to listen to the news and see the different “realities” that “co-exist” in this peculiar country.

    I love and I hate Mexico at the same time.

  4. admin says:

    Every country is the same…in constant motion. The old gives way to the new but the eternal return to that which is the soul of Mexico will always triumph.

    “…ever since World War II we have been aware that the self-creation demanded of us by our national realities is no different from that which similar realities are demanding of others. The past has left us orphans, as it has the rest of the planet, and we must join together in investing in our common future. World history has become everyone’s task, and our own labyrinth is the labyrinth of all mankind.”

    Paz – Labyrinth of Solitude…a book a good friend gave me some time ago. 😉

  5. MR says:

    ….sometimes a “good-bye” is necessary before meeting again and meeting again after moments is certain for those who are friends…….

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *