| We did little over Christmas except stay off the road and read
and watch television. Although the campsite was large and quite full of RVs, many
people had departed to relatives for the holiday. We did have Christmas
dinner on the site (ham and turkey cooked by the site hosts with salads brought by
everybody else). Jan spent some time doing this jigsaw. |  |
 | Eventually we
decided to spend a day in San Antonio, the centre being some ten miles from
the RV site. We took the bus which dropped us in the centre of downtown.
This was one of the first buildings we saw. It is the old courthouse with
this ornamental and imposing tower. |
| Perhaps the main feature of San Antonio is the river which
flows through the centre in a canal with a loop. The sides have been turned
into a very attractive river walk with lots of small restaurants and shops.
Flat-bottomed boats run tours throughout the central area. This stone
ornament was at the bottom of the steps down at one of the many bridges, and
caught our attention because of the multi-coloured leaves draped round it. |  |
 | It is very
artistic and very attractive. In the past the river has flooded but a 3.5
mile tunnel has now been built which handles any floodwaters by bypassing
the city centre. |
| The downtown has many hotels and a very large conference centre
with a number of government buildings close by. Some of the latter were
built for the Hemisfair World's Fair held in 1968, and now house training
facilities for federal judges and other types of police agencies. Some
smaller buildings were built in typical Mexican style. One has a couple of cottage gardens,
one for the present
and one with only plants that would have been grown in the past. |  |
 | Other, modern,
buildings have now been built on the site. This is the local
federal courthouse. The brownstone one we had seen earlier was the State courthouse. |
| Right in the centre of town is this old hotel (the Menger). It was built
by a German couple in 1859 as a two storey hotel on the site of their 1855
wooden boarding house. It was further extended in 1967. In the 19 century it was renowned
for its excellent cuisine and many famous people stayed there, including
Ulysses Grant and other American presidents. |  |
 | Looking down
on the hotel was this unique triangular shaped building. There aren't many
buildings this shape and this was imposing. The decorative stonework is
really beautiful and both it and the Menger Hotel were not at all what we
had expected to see on what had once been one of the more lawless borders of
the 'wild west'. |
| In between the two is the Mision de San Antonio de Valero, better known as the
'Alamo'. Outside is a memorial to those who died in the famous battle, the
most famous probably being Davy Crockett, but including James Bowie and Colonel
Travis, the leader of the group. It is also famous because of the Mexican
general Santa
Anna's declaration of 'no quarter', which meant that all of the defendants were
killed. (Actually there were a few survivors, but they were women and
children who were allowed to go free.) |  |
 | In some
respects the buildings are very ordinary but to Texans particularly this is
a shrine. This is the church at the heart of the complex. Today only a
portion of the whole complex remains. |
| There is a display in the Long Barrack building with this
picture of the events of March 6th 1836. Santa Anna won the day here but was
himself defeated days later and Texas won independence from Mexico.
(Although it was years before they became part of the United States, in
1845.) |  |
 | This oak tree
stands within the courtyard of the mission. It was transplanted here as a 40
year old tree over 100 years ago. |
| One of the building is used as a library and holds early texts on
the history of Texas. It isn't open to the public but is available to
serious researchers. |  |
 | This ornate
building is only about four stories high and has been incorporated into a
much newer building which towers over it, twenty stories high (there are
probably tax advantages to doing this). It looked marvellous in the
sunshine. |
| There is an offset from the canal to the central shopping mall. This
is also a
turning and a loading point for some of the riverboat tours. The city was
absolutely heaving on this day because there was a university football game that evening
between teams from Nebraska Cornhuskers (red) and Michigan Wolverines (blue
and yellow). This was the Alamo Bowl, the final in the university league,
and about 50,000 fans had
made the journey from the cold north, often as whole families. |  |
 | Like football
fans the world over they gathered at particular drinking establishments and
practiced their chants. This was obviously a Nebraska base. |
| The game was at 1900hrs in the Alamodome. As dusk fell they made
their way to the match and everybody else was able to get to the riverside
restaurants. All of the trees were lit up. |  |
 | Most of the
trees looked dead but I think the conifers must have been of a type which
recover in spring. The deciduous trees retained their leaves and these were
very colourful, especially in the evening lights. |
| The sky was also well lit with many of the prominent buildings
illuminated. This one is topped by a television mast. We took the bus back
home, having found the revised route, moved because of
the huge amount of extra traffic caused by the ball game. The result?
Nebraska won 32-28 in a game full of controversy, but I couldn't work it out
- too many strange terms and statistics! |  |
|