Remember The Alamo

---

Entering the second half of our Spring Break week, we packed up again and headed out to San Antonio. This was a trip that was planned a few weeks back together with Martin and Vicky - our Pebble Beach travel buddies. There was no plan to play golf though … I don’t think San Antonio is a golfing destination anyhow. Our primary reason was to attend Billy Joel/Elton John’s Face Off concert.

San Antonio is the second largest city in the state of Texas and is an easy trip for Lauren and I. We decided to fly out earlier - without Martin and Vicky - in order to explore the city and its historical sites. After all, San Antonio, famous for its Riverwalk, the Alamo and Tejano culture, is the cultural gateway into the American Southwest.

After we picked up our rental car, we drove straight to downtown San Antonio (only about 8 miles away). We checked in at Watermark Hotel, located on a quiet one way street along the Riverwalk. It was great to stay in the heart of the tourist district. But there was a minor inconvenience … the hotel does not have its own parking garage. I could park my rental car in a multi storey parking garage about a block away or I could just give it to valet parking. We chose the second option. After all, we were on vacation.

Our room was wonderful. We had a corner room with a small balcony. And from the balcony, we had a view of the city, its sister hotel La Mansion del Rio directly in front (fortunately our room was above that hotel) and the Riverwalk right underneath us.

We didn’t want to waste any time at all. It was late afternoon but the sun was still out. We took the elevator down to the basement and walked right out to the Riverwalk. The Riverwalk - conceived by architect Robert Hugman is the late 1920’s - is a rather narrow series of parallel walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one story beneath the street level of downtown San Antonio. It connects San Antonio’s downtown tourist attractions as it winds under roads and bridges. Restaurants, shops and bars lined both sides of the Riverwalk. Certain part of the Riverwalk does not have any railings at all and it is very easy for pedestrians to fall into this shallow San Antonio River … especially for those who are drunk.

San Antonio is definitely a popular family destination during Spring Break. The Riverwalk was full on this Thursday afternoon. There was a long line in front of the Watermark Hotel for those waiting to get on the Riverwalk cruise. Again, it is not a very wide walkway … so with the line of people waiting and the two lanes of walking traffic, there was no room to get around anybody. Lauren and I decided to turn left, away from the congestion.

But I came to realize that we couldn’t see any of the signs for the famous landmarks from the Riverwalk. So we walked back up to the street level again and found ourselves staring at this red standstone historical building - The Bexar County Courthouse. Built in 1891, this architectural landmark was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

Crossing the street from this courthouse, we arrived at the Main Plaza with the Cathedral of San Fernando - the oldest cathedral in USA - to our left. The Main Plaza has several water fountains in the middle with kids running all over … probably trying to cool off. We tried to enter the Cathedral but it was closed already. As we were standing around, a uniformed man came over to see if we were looking for something. He introduced himself as an Ambassador Amigo. Apparently, downtown San Antonio is full of knowledgeable Ambassador Amigos who are strategically situated around the tourist sites to offer assistance or to answer any questions. Our Amigo told us that there would be a free concert in the Main Plaza a little later and suggested for us to come back in the evening to see the Cathedral being lit.

I decided to take quite a few pictures while Lauren found a chair underneath the tree. The band was still setting up and we didn’t want to wait. There was still so much to see. We headed north on E. Houston and turned right at Navarro. It was much easier to walk on the street level - not as crowded with the fear of being accidentally shoved into the river. And I had a much better sense of direction from the street level.

We decided to follow the signs pointing us towards one of San Antonio’s most famous landmark - The Alamo. The Alamo was a former Catholic mission and fortress compound. The Battle of the Alamo took place in 1836 when over 100 defenders were besieged in the old mission against 4,000 Mexican troops led by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna for 13 days. The defenders were all killed in the final assault. “Remember the Alamo” became the rallying point of the Texas Revolution.

And the Alamo is certainly the biggest tourist attraction in San Antonio. By the time we got there, it was already past 6:00PM. But the place was still pretty crowded. We were running into tourists from all over the world. We also saw a few more of those Ambassador Amigos roaming around. They certainly make San Antonio a tourist friendly city.

I had seen The Alamo in magazines and postcards before. But I was surprised to see that the actual structure was not that big at all. A sheriff was patrolling the area and barking at anyone who touched what was not supposed to be touched or stepped on the grass or jumped over the railings. He was very busy!! This area is full of different modes of transportations … cars, motorbikes, horse-drawn carriages, buses - they all seem to converge around The Alamo.

Leaving The Alamo, we walked past the historical Menger Hotel and turned right at Commerce Street. At the first opportunity, we walked down again to reach the Riverwalk area. It was dinner time now and the narrow walkway became even narrower. There were people lining up in front of every restaurant or bar. We checked the wait at a few restaurants and the minimum was one hour! We should have made a reservation earlier. But we didn’t. We kept walking and realized that the Riverwalk was continually getting more and more crowded. So Lauren and I finally decided to put our name at Paloma Riverwalk - might as well start waiting before the wait got even longer.

San Antonio is famous for its Tex Mex restaurants. It shouldn’t be a surprise considering more than 60% of the population is Hispanics. There were also quite a number of mariachi bands going from one restaurant to the next. It was very festive and the children were certainly enjoying themselves. That was another thing - being in San Antonio during Spring Break without children? We were definitely the minority.

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait as long as we were initially told. It helped that we were just a party of 2. We got seated right next to the river - great table with the view of the busy Riverwalk. The waiter brought our chips and salsa and we ordered our margaritas. Could that get any better? Warm afternoon, a little sweat from exploring downtown San Antonio …. and then to freshen up with cold margaritas on the rock. That was the perfect drink at a Tex Mex restaurant.

After dinner, we decided to head back to the Main Plaza to see the night view of the Cathedral of San Fernando. Riverwalk was packed. It wasn’t just the family looking for restaurants anymore. The college kids were also out by now - checking out all the bars. So we decided to go back up to street level to avoid the traffic jam. It was not a good decision.

Downtown San Antonio - aside from the Riverwalk - is different once it gets dark. The Ambassador Amigos were not around anymore. And the tourists all seem to stay one level below. The streets are dark compared to the Riverwalk. We saw an entirely different group of people now. A man was upset because the public bathroom was locked up already. The Main Plaza was empty except for a couple of tourists - like us. I took a few pictures and decided to find our way back to the Riverwalk.

I wanted to get some ice cream and remember seeing one next to Hard Rock Cafe. But once we got there, we saw the line all the way out the door. I guess this was something that we had to get used to. We finally decided to go back to our hotel and tried to plot out our agenda for the following day.

---

Photos

Bexar County Courthouse
Red sandstone historical building

Relaxing under a tree
Patiently waiting while I was taking pictures. Cathedral of San Fernando in the background.

Main Plaza
Cathedral of San Fernando and the water fountains in the middle of the plaza

Inner city transportation
The touristy way of exploring downtown San Antonio

The Alamo
Remember The Alamo!

San Antonio River Walk
Parallel walkways along San Antonio River

Riverwalk
On one of the bridges at Riverwalk

Riverwalk cruise
Our view during dinner

Cathedral of San Fernando
Night time view