The next stop on our mini tour of Mexico was the lovely colonial city of Puebla.  Set in a valley and surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the bus journey from Mexico was almost as stunning as the UNESCO world heritage city centre.  And, as the city centre is quite small you can easily get a real sense of it in just a day or two. 

We started our day quite late with a wander from the main square to a local market for lunch. 

Puebla is such a beautiful city to stroll through – the streets are so colourful and lots of the buildings boast exteriors covered in azulejos (locally produced traditional blue patterned tiles) or decorative stucco.  

As with most towns in Mexico there are numerous churches 

and the beautiful tiled domes peek out above the buildings making the skyline even more picturesque.

When we arrived at the market it wasn’t hard to search out the local speciality we were looking for – cemitas.  What was harder however was to convey the fact that I don’t like ham or cheese (not something they can even contemplate in Mexico!) But the boy was in heaven…

One big sandwich!

Feeling stuffed after lunch we set out on the proper business of sightseeing.  We started with the Biblioteca Palafoxiana – quite difficult to find and no photos allowed but you will have to trust me that this is definitely worth seeking out!

Next on our list was the Templo de Santo Domingo – famed for its heavily gilded intricate rosary chapel.

As we wandered around the Zocalo we noted what we thought was a rooftop bar with a great view out on the Renaissance/Baroque cathedral.  After wandering around in the heat for a while we were a bit weary so we decided this would be the perfect time to sit down with a cold beverage. We did find the veranda but were rather dismayed to find it belonged to a McDonald’s – not exactly the local pit stop we were hoping for but still we couldn’t turn down this view –

We later discovered a bar a couple of floors below with limited seating on the balconies, so that’s probably a better spot if you want to try and support local industry rather than the conglomerates! I’m glad to report that later that evening we ended up at a wonderful local restaurant rather than a chain…