Texas- San Antonio

Day 2

There’s probably a good reason that the breakfast at La Quinta is free because I certainly never would have paid for it.  I have long been a fan of HIE with their yummy omelets and cinnamon rolls.  Other hotels really ride the line between breakfast and crap.  It didn’t help that I got to breakfast with 15 minutes left before the end but basic things like plates, utensils and cups should always be resupplied.  I wasn’t expecting them to bring out ‘fresh’ eggs just for me but it would have been nice if the toaster was actually working.

The Alamo

But despite the lack of a good morning meal, Tiffany and I headed for downtown San Antonio.  Our goal was to see all that the city had to offer.  After surviving in the traffic, which would become a victory in and of itself, we parked in the nearby Crockett lot.  I wonder if Davy Crockett ever dreamed that one day he would become so famous that a parking lot would be named after him?  Of course, could be worse…coming soon to Leicester, the Richard III lot.  (As we left for the day, the ticket machine wasn't working so we ended up getting free parking.  Thanks, Davy!)  We walked over to the infamous Alamo, or the more historically accurate Misión San Antonio de Valero.  In the build-up to this trip I can’t remember how many times I was told, ‘you’ll be disappointed with The Alamo.’  Well, I wasn’t.  Maybe it’s because I never built it up in my mind.  It is what it is.  I guess if I had it in my mind that the clouds would part and a ray of light would shine down on the doors of the Alamo and a heavenly choir would start going ‘ahhhhh,’ then yes, I would have been disappointed.  But having studied history, I guess I’m more of a realist.  Actually, I was surprised there was more to it than just the chapel section.  Some of the barracks are left and the walls line a nice bit of garden where plenty of cacti grow.  The Shrine part of the complex is rather small and it's hard to imagine almost 200 people crammed in there, with nearly 2,000 enemy soldiers surrounding the building.  In the Shrine, state flags and national flags lined the walls.  Each one had a ribbon with the name of the state or nation and a number.  Of course, I zeroed in on the Welsh flag (if you know anything about me, this doesn’t surprise you).  Thankfully, there were volunteers milling about and one of them told us that each flag represented a defender.  Who knew it was such an international group?    

I will admit to one disappointment, that there was no sand in the area for which I could draw a line through.  The saying ‘drawing a line in the sand’ is often attributed to the Battle at The Alamo.  Colonel William Travis, after hearing the terms of surrender from Santa Anna, took out his sword and drew a line in the sand and anyone who was willing to stay and die had to cross over it.  I was all ready to reenact that for my uncle and send the picture off to the snowy Midwest but there was no sand.  How could they?!  I attempted to draw a line in the rocks but that just didn’t cut it.  C’est la vie.  The only other thing I will say about The Alamo is that I don’t think you left there really understanding more about the event.  The information was sparse.  There was a nice outdoor section about the follow-up to the siege but all in all, it was more of a memorial (which it has every right to be) than a museum. 

The Riverwalk

After The Alamo, we walked over to The Riverwalk.  It’s exactly how it sounds, walking along a river.  But it’s actually quite nice.  It was still pretty early so we had the ambling paths to ourselves for the most part.  The majority of The Riverwalk is restaurants.  It reminded me slightly of the canals in The Venetian in Las Vegas, minus the cheesiness.  Plus it’s also a nice way of walking through the city without having to stop for street crossings.  We headed back up to the road and went to take a quick peek at the San Fernando Cathedral.  Right inside the left entrance of the building is a tomb that holds to remains of those that fought at The Alamo: Davy Crockett, William Travis and Jim Bowie in particular.  That took about all of five seconds to see.  The cathedral was small and sedate, at least compared to the European cathedrals I’m used to (not to sound like a snob).  We also made a quick stop at the Spanish Governor’s Palace.  Again, palace is a very kind way to describe the building.  It definitely looked like an outpost in some provincial land, and that’s probably what it was when it was first built.  Outside there was a statue of a generic conquistador, it made for a perfect photo op, ‘say massacre!’  Just across from the Palace was a statue of Moses Austin who got a land grant from the Spanish government to start the first English settlement in Texas.  Can’t help but think a lot of people see that as mistake numero uno. 

The bakery at Mi Tierra

A little bit further along is The Mercado, or the Mexican Market.  I was kind of hoping for a festive environment.  I should have known not to trust the pictures on the Internet that showed roving Mariachi bands and traditional dancers.  They did have some good shops down there if you wanted Mexican goods but there were also plenty that were selling junk to gullible tourists.  We did eat down there at Mi Tierra.  Now that was festive.  Every inch of the ceiling was decorated with streamers and piñatas.  The waitresses wore red, white and green peasant skirts and the salsa was plentiful.  I guess it was Tex Mex more than Mexican food but regardless it was yummy.  And the strawberry margaritas were VERY yummy.  After having our fill of some down home Texas food, we headed back out.  We didn’t head back down to the Riverwalk, wanting to stop off at the Hard Rock Café.  Again, here is where San Antonio’s lack of signage becomes a bit of an annoyance.  Tiffany and I are pretty good with maps, I can’t count how many trips I have been the official navigator for, but when you hide the building and then put a big rotating sign on the road a block in the wrong direction, of course people are going to get a bit turned around.  But despite that, the Hard Rock couldn’t hide from us.  We made the compulsory visit to the gift shop (since I collect the city pins) and then headed out.  I had to laugh that they had a small section of memorabilia dedicated to Ozzy Osborne, since one of his many colorful tales includes when he dressed up in women’s clothes and peed on The Alamo.

Mission San José

Mission Concepción

We were done with the downtown area of San Antonio and rest of the day would have us on the Mission Trail.  There are four more missions on the outskirts of San Antonio.  When in doubt, we followed the brown signs (which amazingly they had).  But first we had to find our way through the detours.  We took an extended driving tour of the King William neighborhood, the section of the city where German immigrants made their home.  Some of the houses were amazing to look at.  There are some that you can tour but you have to call ahead and reserve a time and we just had too much to do.  After taking some tours of other not so nice neighborhoods, we finally got to the first of the missions, Mission Concepción (proper name, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña).  With the Spanish not getting as far north as Maryland, we certainly don’t have buildings like this readily available so I always enjoy visiting them when possible.  The missions were built in the early 1730s; for my Marylanders, Baltimore City was founded in 1729.  The first two missions, Concepción and San José, are definitely the more impressive of the four on the Mission Trail.  The inside of Concepción still has the bold ochre paint covering the vestibule.  The outer walls and living quarters of the Native Americans are still intact at San José (proper name, Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo).  At San José, you got the best picture of what missions were all about.  It wasn’t just the religious aspects, which was a big part of it, but it was a community.  Housing, agriculture, commerce; in that way the missions are probably the closest thing to castles that you can get in the US.  Mission San Juan Capistrano was getting a bit of a face lift.  It seems from older pictures I have seen that it recently was given a white wash, which is what the missions would have looked like back in the day.  It’s definitely a lot smaller than the first two but that doesn’t make it less worthy of a visit.  Of course since it was getting some work done, we weren’t able to go inside, oh well- next time.  The last of the missions was Mission Espada (proper name, Mission San Francisco de la Espada).  This mission is a lot greener than the others and feels more like a local church in some village as opposed to a multi-functioning town center like the other ones.  If you time your visit just right you can hear the mission bells ring, a sound that goes back almost 300 years.

Mission Espada

With the missions in the record book and five o’clock fast approaching we headed back out into the fray of rush hour traffic, admittedly not our smartest move.  It probably took us about an hour to get back to the good old La Quinta.  We needed a break from Tex Mex so Tiffany scoured Urban Spoon for some other options, which isn’t easy when the WiFi is about as slow as an elderly turtle walking through molasses in January at the South Pole, and we finally settled on Bourbon Street Seafood Kitchen.  Having been to New Orleans a few times and eating my fair share of Creole/Cajun food it wasn’t bad for being in Texas.  But of course, it still had me wishing for the real stuff in the Big Easy.

Tomorrow, we were headed off to Hill Country (AKA wine country) and the city of Fredericksburg.