Tuesday, September 21, 2010

San Antonio

Today we travelled from Austin to San Antonio, a modest distance of 80 miles. We left in cool and cloudy conditions and travelled the whole way on Interstate 35 because there was no reasonable alternative. This also meant we arrived before lunch and had plenty of time to explore San Antonio's two major tourist draws: The Alamo and Riverwalk.

Our Journey down I-35 took us down a corridor of businesses, malls and other developments that was pretty much continuous all the way from Austin to San Antonio.

Along the way we ran into some rain, but not enought to warrant getting into wet weather gear. Driving into San Antonio gave us a less than welcoming feeling. It seemed to be an sprawling city with little of beauty.

But then, right in the middle of the downtown area was the Alamo, easily recognised by the stone walls surrounding it.

We spent quite a lot of time exploring the buildings and grounds.
 


There were many fine exhibits in the museum and a diorama in the souvenir shop. Chris was struggling to reconcile the diorama and maps of the Alamo in 1836 with the current buildings, walls and structures. It turns out that there is very little of the Alamo still extant, and that there are a lot of modern buildings walls and gardens that look old but are unrelated to the fort that was heroicly defended to the death by Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis and the two hundred men in their command. A major road runs through the old structure, and a few stones on the other side mark the southwest corner of the original fort.

Next to these stones was a visitor centre where we were given a map of the city showing the other major attraction - the Riverwalk. Before tackling that, we stopped for a late lunch in a store a few doors down the road.
Do chimeras really exist?


The Riverwalk is a series of picturesque paths below street level that meander along both sides of the San Antonio River and the network of connected canals. It is a most attractive haven in the centre of the city as the walk is lined with restaurants, hotels, bars and shops. Bridges allow easy passage fron one side to the other at various points along the walkways.

Unfortunately we have no photographs of the Riverwalk. They were accidently deleted from our camera before they were downloaded. However you can find pictures of it here.

Once you walked down these steps it was another world. It is one of the prettiest city walks we have seen.
It was a beautiful loop walk, through trees, plants and restaurants with colourful umbrellas. You could cross over the river at any time on bridges that would rival those in Venice. People walked out onto their hotel balconies to watch the scene from above. The tourist boat ride was very busy so we walked around it instead.

After walking around the central network of canals, we booked ourselves on a boat tour. We had an hour and a half wait for the next available tour, so we returned to the Visitor Centre and asked for some help finding a motel. We found one that was close to the city but surprisingly inexpensive and booked ourselves in.

Returning to the cruise dock, it began raining - a drizzle at first. As it began to build in intensity, we sat down at a bar for a drink. We wanted to sit outside under the large umbrellas, a proposal that was resisted - ultimately in vain - by the bar staff. The cruise boat didn't turn up and on investigation we learned it was cancelled. We took our refund and headed off in the rain to find our motel. Our GPS gave us no help in finding it, and we ended up riding miles past it. We telephoned the motel for help and headed back towards the city following their directions. It turned out the motel was within walking distance of the Riverwalk... It was also very good value although it was in a neighbourhood that looked a little rough.

We were tired and with all the rain couldn't be bothered looking for a supermarket to make our own dinner, so we ate in a lovely Italian restaurant that was a short walk from our motel.

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