Flights, Fajitas and Fiestas - San Antonio July 2017 - Day 4

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Flights, Fajitas and Fiestas

Cast:

Alison – early fifties, with wanderlust (but insists on travelling in comfort and style)
Me – Shaun, mid fifties, also with wanderlust (used to be happy to travel anyhow but the comfort and style option is more appealing now!)

Link to trip report index:
Here

Wednesday 19th July

San Antonio


We woke up early this morning again (not unexpectedly with the time difference) so we made the most of the fresh milk for coffee and cookies that we’d purchased the night before to keep us going before we were ready to get some breakfast.

We had previously decided on Guenther House for breakfast, which came highly recommended but was a bit of a walk out of town. But the sun was shining, and we enjoy a walk – so decided to go for it.

This seemed like “business as usual” for us, up early and out strolling around but boy it was really quite hot and humid, even at this time in the morning. The walk along the river was very pleasant with very few people out and about this time of the morning apart from a few ducks and assorted wildlife.

In all it took about 30 minutes to get to Guenther House and it felt like the walk from Boardwalk towards Hollywood Studios in Disney but in a slightly more non-manicured way.



After this picture it opened out much more and was greener:



As we peeled off the riverside path there were a group of elderly American tourists in front of us wandering towards the building. It wasn’t clear exactly where the restaurant is as you have the old building right next door to the working flour mill.





Anyway, we guessed correctly and avoided the working area and settled down in a lovely undercover area outside for breakfast.



We had a really lovely relaxed breakfast in a peaceful and quiet setting; the only thing I hadn’t expected was to see bottles of various bottles of chilli sauces on offer, even for breakfast!

The coffee was delicious – we get getting hints of different flavours and eventually asked the waitress about it. She explained that it was their own special house blend, with hints of pecans, caramel and vanilla. Wonderful stuff!

Alison had pancakes and I had the house special which included biscuits and gravy. All delicious and well worth the $25 check (which included a tip).





I guess we should have lingered after eating and taken in the museum to take a look around but to be honest it didn’t look like our sort of thing.

Instead we just wandered back along the riverside, trying to keep in the shade where possible as the heat and humidity was really building up even though it was still quite early. Once back at the hotel we got changed and made our way upstairs to check out the rooftop pool area.

The position of the pool meant that you had a good 360 degree view of San Antonio and the surrounding areas, as the landscape was almost entirely flat you could see right to the horizon all around. Anyway, the swim was just the ticket and we enjoyed cooling down a bit before relaxing on sun loungers in the shade.



We decided that a hour or so was enough relaxation time so we went back down to our room only to find that it was being serviced so we went down to the lobby and flicked through the leaflets to see if there was anything we’d missed of our bucket list of things to do.

There was possibly a couple of things outside the greater San Antonio area but we didn’t have a hire car and public transport wasn’t going to be an option. The lobby is very attractive, and there was a couple of complimentary flavoured waters (our favourite was the pink prickly pear!)



No problem, we had enough things to do and see so we went back upstairs to our room and found that the cleaners had finished our room so we just got changed and ready to go out for the rest of the day.

One of the main things to do here in San Antonio is a visit to the Alamo which was just a couple of minutes’ walk from our hotel. As a historical landmark it’s a place not to miss and is right in the centre of the San Antonio Riverwalk district. The church, gardens and museum provides a good and surprisingly unbiased view of Texas history and the role that the battle of Alamo played. Ultimately it’s a very small place so you don’t need a significant amount of time to take everything in and has a real bonus of being free entry. It was much smaller than we expected it to be, but obviously a really important piece of American history.



One thing we tend to do on city breaks is to go on one the bus tours, mainly to get our bearings and look at other parts of the city that we might not necessarily get to. San Antonio wasn’t going to be any different so on the way to the Alamo we bought a combo ticket that included the Red Bus tour, Water Bus tour and the tower of Americas for $49.

We wanted to get a drink so I decided that we ought to take in the Menger Hotel bar. The Hotel (and bar) was built in 1859 and the bar was re-modelled after the bar in the British House of Lords, complete with elaborate stained glass windows and ceiling. Amongst other notable things here, Teddy Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders here, volunteers for the first American volunteer cavalry that fought in Cuba during the Spanish – American War. On a more simple level, this was the first bar in Texas with ice.

If this Americana appeals, you can download a self-guided tour of the hotel form their website. I had hope to get a pint but due to lack of bar staff and no one else around to serve, we gave it a miss and moved on.

We felt a bit peckish by now and with the Rivercenter Mall practically next door we assumed they must have some snack places inside and luckily for us there was a “Which wich” sandwich bar – a bit like a Subway in many ways except this one sold beer and margheritas as well.

A bit of a strange ordering system whereby you take a bag, grab a small sharpie (although most had gone and replaced by Ikea type pencils), tick the boxes on the bag to customise and write your name on the bag. Hand the bag over, pay the money and wait for your name to be called.

whichwich

Overall, quick, delicious and cheap, it really hit the spot in terms of what we wanted at this time of day. We had a Reuben, a BLT and 2 sodas – all lovely.



As the Red Bus ticket was good for two days we decided to “bank” the bus trip for tomorrow and go and do other things today around the local area that were in walking distance.

After a quick scan of the map we realised that we could actually walk to Hemisfair and the Tower of the Americas. (We seem to be strangely drawn to tall towers across the world, taking in CN tower, Toronto, Berlin TV tower, Stratosphere, Las Vegas and of course, the BT tower in London).

The Tower of the Americas is a 750-foot (230-meter) observation tower and restaurant, built in 1968 for the World’s Fair and was the tallest in the states until 1996, when the Las Vegas Stratosphere Tower was completed.



We showed our entry tickets and went in and queued for the lifts after taking the obligatory tourist photograph against a green screen should we decide pick up later (we didn’t!)

From the top there was a lovely view from the outside observation deck without a cloud in the sky and typical café, restaurant and gift shop all in place as you’d expect.




Inside was a very detailed history of Texas and San Antonio showing Mexico's attack at the Alamo, French explorer Louis St. Denis' mapping of the Camino Real Trail, Spain's domination of Texas for more than 300 years and an awful lot more, possibly too much to take in during a brief visit.

We took the lift down and wandered outside to head back to the hotel where we noticed The Instituto Cultural de México. According to the blurb, The Instituto Cultural de México at San Antonio is the Permanent Cultural Representation of the Mexican Government in this city. Over its 50 years of existence at Hemisfair Park, the Instituto Cultural de Mexico has been able to maintain an important place on the cultural life of San Antonio, thanks to its wide range of events designed to show the many faces of the Mexican culture.

Well, that sounds like a barrel of fun so off we went out of curiosity and a need to dip out of the heat. I guessed from the receptionist (who was out having a cigarette) and the relatively thin visitor book that not many people venture in, probably due to the nondescript exterior. Anyway, we were here now so may as well take a look around? Interesting little place, a couple of room filled with contemporary artwork on subjects to do with recent Mexican culture. Who knew they were vehemently against GM crops and corn in particular due to strongly held religious beliefs? Well, we do now!

Although this looks like bagels stuck together, it actually is reversed giant sombreros!



Interesting though it was, that was enough culture for one day so back at the hotel we stopped by the lobby area for a Starbucks before going to our room. Caffeine fix taken care of and following a quick shower and change of clothes, we walked out to the Riverwalk to do the Riverboat Cruise.

It was nice to take a break from all the walking to just sit back, relax and take in the views.




Our captain was pleasant and funny and pointed out a few things that we probably wouldn’t have noticed ourselves. In all the tour was just over half an hour long which was just long enough to get a flavour of the place and to check out other restaurants along the river that we may not have come across on our own.



There’s a significant choice of places to eat, from cheap burger joints to ones tending towards high end and everything in-between. We really did fancy Mexican so I took a quick look at TripAdvisor and we settled on Iron Cactus Mexican grill and margarita bar, not cheap but slightly upscale and away from the busier tourist end.


There was no wait for a table and we were seated down outside with a couple of drinks (a beer for me and a cocktail for Alison to start with, followed by more beers for us both to go with the meal) overlooking the river and watching the world go by.



It was quite an international flavour of tourists here with one group near us having the fresh guacamole treatment as a waiter came out with a trolley loaded with avocados, dips and salsa and prepared the guacamole with a flourish in front of them. This seems to be a “thing” in the southern states as we saw it a few times on our trip.

To start with we had the obligatory nachos with some superb dips including a roasted pepper one that we enjoyed so much we asked for another bowl.





For the entree I had Mexican meatloaf - Angus sirloin, chorizo, bacon, ranchero sauce served with green chili bacon mash and Mexican street corn – delicious! Alison had shrimp tacos and refried beans – also delicious!








It really was a fantastic meal – and came in at a relatively recent cost of $72 including tip.

We rolled back to our room along the River Walk and made ourselves coffee in the room to take up to the roof top pool to plan the next day. It was a lovely temperature – especially as we sat near some large fans that the hotel and thoughtfully provided!

[phoebe23]

Thankyou for sharing - fantastic day - at the Alamo did you step over the line? My elderly mum was travelling with us and spotted her family name on the monument. We'd had breakfast in a German Hofbrau style deli called Schilo's complete with servers in traditional dress.

[Melbatb]

The mexican food looks lovely!

What a busy day you had - you certainly managed to do a lot!

[BONZO]

Originally Posted by phoebe23

Thankyou for sharing - fantastic day - at the Alamo did you step over the line? My elderly mum was travelling with us and spotted her family name on the monument. We'd had breakfast in a German Hofbrau style deli called Schilo's complete with servers in traditional dress.

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We sure did - We wanted to do the audio tour but it'd had long sold out.

San Antonio does have a German immigrant heritage, we had planned to go a Bier Haus but it didn't come of this trip.

[Glee Fan]

Busy old day. You packed in loads! Food looks lovely.