San Antonio

An hour or so south of Austin on I35 is the historic town of San Antonio. Right slap bang in the middle of that is the Alamo, a cool hat shop and an antiques/collectibles mall where I acquired the second of three pairs of cowboy boots. Acquiring them is easy – anything that fits on my small almost square extremities and isn't baby pink or vomit yellow will do just fine. Getting them home in my modest sized suitcase along with all the other wise and foolish purchases will be the fun part.

More on the social stuff later – first a piece of history. In brief, Spanish colonization started around 1718, when Franciscans constructed a mission, San Antonio de Valero, in what was originally a Coahuiltecan Indian village. The aim was to convert and educate the locals, and create an economic base for the settlement. More settlers arrived over the next few years and four more missions (all still standing) were built along the river. The original mission converted to military use and was known as The Alamo. The territory on which it stood became part of Mexico following a battle for independence from Spain.

The Alamo is now a central city monument at the site of the 1836 battle and thirteen day siege involving the Republic of Mexico against American settlers fighting for independence along with Tejanos (Mexicans living in Texas). Although the Mexicans won this gory battle and seized the mission, they were later defeated at the battle of San Jacinto and the independent Texas forces won the war. Texas became part of the United States in 1845. The Alamo is a haunting place at night, like many other historic battle grounds. Wikipedia has more information for interested readers.

The surrounding area is a little less daunting with the usual shops, bars, parks an attractive riverside walk and hotels, some with longer history than others. Horse drawn carriages decked with fairy lights offer tourists a leisurely way to browse the central area. A couple of real historic buildings grace the centre, though many more provide further evidence of the chain company mania that seems to have spread everywhere across the country like a highly contagious rash.

A bit away from the centre are some highlights of our two day pit stop in a slightly seedy but cheap and mostly acceptable motel. (The nut case screaming 'I am the redeemer', banging on random doors at 2am and causing the pool to be closed for fumigation the following days was not a permanent fixture!)

A great dinner venue is the fabulous Leaning Liberty Bar. A repurposed whore house I'm told, with unique features like heritage recipes on the menu, an upstairs veranda and downstairs windows that look ready to topple over into the street. Ain't nothin' straight about this old weather board and sheet iron baby – even if the business is nowadays.

Then there's Casbeers, what seems to be a typical Texas style watering hole (down to earth, slightly dingy, stuffed animal heads on the walls...) with cheap, basic, excellent food, good beer and live local blues to satisfy the most discerning 'chasin' the blues' tourist.

Carrying on down the 'friends of friends' hospitality route, our local guide is John, a Wall St Journal reporter turned school teacher. Methinks the man must either be mad or have a heart. Maybe even a little of both.

He and Tom are certainly amusing - vis this transcript for the above photo:

John: Once you buy a couch you can never be free [with pathos]
Tom: Fear of furniture is what I call that [with empathy].