Headed south from Austin to San Antonio. It’s less than 100 miles. Along the way, we stopped at this cute little historic town called Gruene, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was Sunday, and there must have been a thousand people (I’m not even kidding!) there for lunch at the Gristmill River Restaurant. The restaurant spread out all over the place, inside and outside. There were lots of cute little boutique shops, but the highlight is Gruene Hall. It is a saloon and dancehall, in continuous operation since the 1800’s!
Many famous musicians have performed here – it is where George Strait and Lyle Lovett got started!
The “windows” are chicken coop screen when the shutters are folded down.
Inside are picnic tables, a bar, a stage at front and back, a dance floor, and packed with people listening to whoever is playing. This day there was a cute little backwoods country band complete with washboard.
This is the Gruene Mansion Inn B&B.
From here, we continued south to San Antonio. It was HOT!–103. So we were ready to find our hotel and hang out in the A/C for awhile. We’d be staying here for two nights, so I was happy that I found us something affordable on the Riverwalk. We were just a couple blocks south of the main “loop” of it.
I loved the Riverwalk. It’s a little Texas style Venice. They’ve channeled part of the San Antonio river through downtown, one story below street level. There are wide paths on each side with trees, restaurants, shops. It’s very pretty and full of energy, yet relaxing.
We ate a big Texas T-bone dinner at the place on the right.
There was a big old building that had all these columns with “gargoyles”, so I took a close-up shot of a couple of them. They reminded me of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. 🙂
The next morning, we went to see the Alamo and Missions. The Alamo was originally built in 1718 as a church and mission, but was used as a fortress and was the site of the famous battle of the Alamo in 1836.
The missions of San Antonio were built for both political and religious reasons – to convert Native Americans to Christianity and to help settle the region under the Spanish flag. There are five sites, including the Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero). Together they are considered a World Heritage Site, part of the National Park system, and all remain active centers of worship (Catholic). They were amazing!!
Much of the interior paint colors and designs on the walls have been preserved.
Mission San Jose is next, and was my favorite.
It had a huge compound, and much of the structures were still there. The compound was a major social center for the region.
The natives were housed in rooms that were in the perimeter wall around the compound.
This architecture was great – this was part of the ‘convento’.
The interior of the church was so elegant and pretty.
The Mission San Juan church building was not open. It was the only smooth painted white building in all of the missions.
Mission Espada was the oldest. The stone construction fascinated me.
The interior was so different, with wood beams and a very simple rustic feel.
I loved the fact that all of these churches are still actively used for worship, and had their service times posted. There were candles lit, and parishioners present.
To finish off my tour of churches, I also went to see the San Fernando Cathedral, just a few blocks from our hotel. It was originally built between 1738 & 1749. The front was replaced in 1868 with the current French Gothic Revival style.
Huge beautiful stained glass windows depicting 18 saints, and intricately carved Stations of the Cross surrounded the sanctuary. The picture doesn’t show it well, but these carvings are probably 4′ in height.
It was very ornate!
In the rear was the huge beautiful pipe organ.
I am not Catholic and do not know the traditions of the faith, so I really tried to just blend into the walls and did not want to do anything that might be considered disrespectful in any way. I did not approach the baptismal font, but it is an ornately carved stone piece, believed to have been a gift from Charles III, king of Spain in 1759.
I loved the tour of the Missions and the Cathedral! So beautiful and holy.
Just a couple more shots from San Antonio:
I enjoyed San Antonio, even though it was hotter than blazes (as my mom would say) and the roads were crazy which made Kenny nuts. Lanes would end without notice, or become turn-only lanes without notice, along with random one-way roads and the overall layout was not a grid pattern whatsoever. It was way too random to give directions quick enough, so we had to do some u-turns and recalculations, and in traffic… let’s just say the tension was thick! But it was a neat place to visit.