San Antonio: February 7th

We were excited to visit this city; we’d heard some wonderful things about it. It is nowhere near as sprawling as others we’ve been to. Thankfully, parking was really easy. The campground owner was so nice, she explained how to get into the city, where to park, the best things to see, good places to eat etc; it made the day run very smoothly.

We walked to The Alamo and spent a couple of hours there, learning about its place in history and the incredible significance it had for the changing geography of the area. It began life as one of the five Spanish Missions but, as with the other Missions, life there ended as the population numbers dwindled.

By the 1830’s, it was an influential fort for those who considered themselves Texans and did not want to come under the rule of those from New Spain/Mexico. Clearly, this was unacceptable to the Mexican troops and the Alamo was violently attacked in a 3 week battle, ending with horrendous bloodshed and only a handful of people spared. Among those were the Captain’s servant, from whom, accounts of the events were shared; also a small number of women and children who were given the instruction to share the message that the Mexican army should not be messed with!

However, a few weeks later, a rise of insurgents, outnumbered by the Mexicans: three to one, won a speedy 18 minute battle against their enemies, buoyed no doubt by the huge numbers of dead at the Alamo. In fact, it was in this battle that the rallying cry of ‘Remember the Alamo’ was heard as the fighting began.

From the Alamo, we walked to the Riverwalk area. This is lower than the main part of the city, partly man-made as they’ve diverted the river around with locks and dams to deal with flooding, so in most areas it’s very shallow. As we were walking along the side, Nate spotted a dead rat floating in the water – ah, just lovely, cheers Nate!

I’d found information about the MadDogs British Pub along the Riverwalk and we headed there for lunch. Yep, sorry, you can forget all about your Tex-Mex cuisine when a pint of Boddingtons calls! We had to admit, it tasted so good, along with fish and chips and an English fry-up – a great way to spend a couple of hours. The sports channel was on, so Jake was happy, it would’ve been easy to spend more time there, very relaxing!

However, we did manage to pull ourselves away and took the boat tour around the river, which was interesting but somewhat overpriced we felt.

Our next stop was Hemisphere Park, originally built to hold the 1968 World’s Fair, HemisFair Park has been one of the state’s most popular attractions since its inception. It houses the 750ft tall ‘Tower of the Americas’. I’d spotted on the map that there was a big Children’s Playground in the Park, which of course entertained the kids for quite some time, they had to be dragged away.

We wandered back via the Riverwalk, checking out ‘Jake’s Place’ and then went back past the Alamo.

It was an enjoyable day, we had fun in the city and thankfully it was very do-able in a day without feeling rushed and hassled. I’m quite sure it would be mobbed in the summer, the walkways around the river are pretty narrow and would feel crowded quickly.