Touring San Antonio - Mon 3/19

No biking today.  We spent most of the day walking around San Antonio.

Dan and Donna Gonzales from San Diego picked us up in their motorhome and we had breakfast together.  Then they kindly dropped us off downtown at the Alamo.

The Alamo is much different than I expected.  Now there are modern buildings and roads where the walls originally stood.  Only the chapel and long barracks remain.  Most of the defenders were killed in hand-to-hand combat in the long barracks, which was built by Indians 300 years ago.  The only real military benefit of the last stand at the Alamo was in creating martyrs and a rallying cry.

Next we rode a tour boat down the Riverwalk and toured  the Institute of Texan Culture.  We rode the bus back to our motel, arriving shortly before the thunderstorms, pouring rain and tornado warnings.

Photos:
Breakfast with the Gonzaleses at IHOP.
Chapel at the Alamo.
Long barracks at the Alamo.
The Riverwalk.
Casa Rio on the Riverwalk.

The truth from Ruth:  I enjoyed the Institute of Texan Culture quite a lot.  There were so many ethnic groups that came to Texas!  Lebanese, Japanese, Polish, Czech, and Italian were some I didn't know about.  There were great exhibits for each group.  Texas is a very diverse place!
I loved the River Walk.  It reminded me of rapid transit in other large cities, where you can't see the stations from the city streets, but you go down the stairs and there it is.  Except instead of being a train station, it's a beautiful river with paths going to each store, hotel or restaurant.  Amazing!