Much of our time down in Texas has been plagued by crummy weather. Nearly the entire time we were in Dallas it was raining and San Antonio proved to be no exception. A similar thing happened to us when we were in Europe so we are beginning to think we bring the bad weather. In any case, Saturday ended up being quite the nice day as it was 80 and sunny. Time to head downtown!
We decided to get an Uber to bring us downtown, as a round trip would end up costing as much as parking downtown for the day, and taking an Uber brought us right to the front steps of our first destination: The Alamo.
You can be forgiven if you aren’t up to date on your American history and the story of the Alamo. I certainly was no different before deciding we would include it in our trip. For a brief 2:37 overview you can view this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAMZQlAQAyQ
That video leaves a lot of information out (including details regarding Mexico outlawing slavery and the Tejanos wanting to keep it), but perhaps it at least piques your interest enough to look into it further. In any case, it was a lovely day and we were happy to find out that the Alamo had no entrance fee. Hurray saving money!
You enter the front doors and find yourself in the church. You are immediately lectured that photography is not allowed, so I’m afraid you will need to google interior images to get a glimpse of whats inside. There actually isn’t too much to see... there are some circular chandeliers and vaulted ceilings, but otherwise it’s mostly empty in there. At the back is a model of what the grounds would have looked like back during the battle of the Alamo as well as plaques with the names of the defenders… but otherwise it's just an empty building.
We quickly left the main building and exited out into a large courtyard. This was much more interesting than just the main church building. There’s a small water duct that runs the width of the courtyard, and in it are a bunch of huge fish swimming around. I looked around the grounds as we walked but never really saw any information about what this was for or why they were there.
Walking further back from the church is a “living camp” with reenactors walking around pretending to go about daily life. Personally, this sort of freaks me out… There's just something about grown adults walking around pretending in their free time that screams "serial killer" to me. *shrug* Whatever floats your boat. As a result we made sure not to linger in that area for more than a few moments (less one of the reenactors decide we were up for a chat about old timey things).
My favorite part of the Alamo had to be the gardens area:
The whole area is very green and shaded as the result of a large tree near the center. Everything comes to a point around a small fountain that had the names of Crockett and Bowie on the side of it. After being in the hot Texan sun, it was a much needed cool shelter from the beating sunlight. Unfortunately a lot of other people had the same idea, so once again we didn't linger long.
There are a few other buildings with exhibits in them, but we floated in and out of them quickly not wanting to try to read all of the information. Most of it was regarding the different soldier uniforms and weaponry, and frankly reading a lot gives us both a headache (Yep, we’re getting old).
After the Alamo we made a beeline straight for the real reason we decided to come to San Antonio: The River Walk!
Up above I was mentioning how nice the garden area of the Alamo was… That’s basically how the river walk is... for the entire length of it. The river runs throughout the middle of the city in a loop, and on one end of the loop extends in either direction in a straight line:
The River Walk is actually below street level, so every block or so is another staircase you can descend to get down to it. Once you do you find yourself in the shade of the tall buildings around you with tons of plants and trees lining the river.
The loop area of the river is lined with restaurants, so we took a long walk around the loop enjoying the cooler temperatures by the water and just enjoying everything. The sidewalks on either side of the river aren’t terribly large, and there are large parts of it without any railings, so I was surprised that I didn’t see anyone falling in.
All of the restaurants have seating next to the river, so no matter which one you pick you are bound to have a nice seat available. We opted for a steakhouse with seats a little bit higher than the walking path:
After our meal we grabbed another Uber back to the apartment. All in all it was a pretty awesome day. I'm glad we decided to come to San Antonio and can easily recommend the River Walk as a unique must see location.