For this post we are visiting the beautiful city of San Antonio, Texas, home of the Alamo. In fact we have so much to share I am going to have to split it into 2 posts. This first post covers San Antonio in general as well as a great venue called Buckhorn’s Saloon and Museum. I do hope you enjoy them.
As usual I start (2nd photo actually) with a photo Shane took of San Antonio’s skyline as we drove in from the north. Next morning bright and early we bussed in to the city to look for somewhere to have breakfast. That’s when we got our first taste of San Antonio’s “River Walk” or at least the CBD section. The River Walk is about 15 miles long with about one third of that within the CBD area and it is wonderful.
We didn’t get far and we stumbled onto a favourite chain of ours in the “Rainforest Café”. We never get tired of this restaurant and regular readers would recognise it from a post in Florida and again in Nashville . After breakfast we continued our walk and loved it. It was a bit chilly but at least it wasn’t snowing as we’d had a few weeks back.
Since San Antonio was founded in the early 1700’s there is much history about. Much of the architecture has been kept and the cityscape ranges from old western missions like the Alamo, through Gothic, Plantation mansions to modern glass and steel. Sadly there isn’t much left of the entire “Misión San Antonio de Valero” as the Alamo was originally called but the Church façade and gardens is now World Heritage protected and well worth a visit. But more on the Alamo in the next post along with the other Missions of San Antonio.
In amongst the general photos are 3 pics of the Historic Market Square where even a Mexican Elvis kept us amused. The high panoramas of the city were taken from the 230mtr (750’) high “Tower of the America’s” which was built for the 1968 World’s Fair. After sunset we descended and went for another walk along the river. As it happened we were there during the Parade of Lanterns and I’ll leave this narrative on San Antonio at that before I move on to the next attraction.
If you’d like a recommendation for somewhere really great to visit then San Antonio fills the bill. There is so much to see and do and sadly we could only scratch the surface. One place we did get to was Buckhorn’s Saloon and Museum. Do yourself a favour and hit the link here. We have never been to any place like it. After a couple of beers (I had the “Shiner Bock” on the left while Shane had a schooner of “Pineapple Cider” – Yes that beer is that big! Weighed almost 3 kgs till I got into it).
I truly am lost for words to describe this taxidermist’s paradise so I won’t try to describe each photo. There are trophies from all over the world valued at millions of dollars many of which are unique. There is also a Texas Ranger Museum, a mock western town and a “Wild Bill Hickcock’s Wild West Show” display with oddities that need to be seen to be believed. We had a ball over many hours in the Buckhorn. The final photo is of an Indian Head dress that was stunning. It wasn’t in Buckhorn’s but in a wonderful Jewellery / Gift Shop a few doors up. Un fortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos in this shop but geez it had some gorgeous items.
As I said earlier there was much, much more to San Antonio but we have just had to accept that we can’t see everything wherever we go. Besides the cost we just don’t have the time. (30 years ago we set off on a 6 month trip around Australia that ended up taking 3 years.)
Next blog , which will hopefully be posted a day or so after this post, will be entirely on the 5 missions of San Antonio starting with the Alamo. Don’t miss it as it is a spectacular part of the history of the American wild west and instrumental in the building of this modern USA.
Cheers for now,
Garry & Shane