WEDNESDAY 7TH MAY 2025

Preamble: It’s been a year since our 7-week trip to the States, and I never finished blogging about it. Now I’m attempting to recapture that travel experience. By this point of the adventure, we’d arrived on 22nd April into San Francisco, attended my friend’s wedding in San Ramon CA, visited with blogging friends in Oregon, then taken the Amtrak train from Eugene, Oregon, down to Los Angeles, and then east to San Antonio. I pick up the story on our second day there…

Having detrained at 5am the previous morning, this time we eased into the day, letting our bodies decide when to wake. Then we moseyed into town to use the second day of our hop on – hop off trolley ticket. As we’d already seen the full loop, this time we decided to “hop off” at each stop on the way. As before, we commenced at Stop 1 – Alamo Plaza. You might want to grab your drink of choice – this is going to be a loooong post.

Stop 2 – The Pearl

The Pearl was originally established as a brewery in the 1880s and has been converted to a hotel and dining precinct. As in many parts of the city, the San Antonio River winds through here. We walked to a pretty cascade in a simple garden setting. Very peaceful. (In selecting images for this post, I’ve ignored the several I took of a grey squirrel. My North American friends will never understand the curiosity I have for this creature which has no native equivalent in Australia.)

Then we entered the old brewhouse, now the Emma Hotel, named after the wife of the original owner, Otto Koehler. He had a habit of cheating on his wife, Emma, with women also named Emma. E#3 shot him dead in 1914, leaving E#1, the lawful wife, to run the show. Which she did successfully, even navigating the business through the Prohibition years.

I am always amazed how architects can transform run-down industrial buildings into desirable accommodation. The fusion in this hotel is impressive. “Moody dark” is probably the decor colour 🙂

Also impressive was a produce market we then explored. Wonderfully laid out and clean, there are sections for every type of food and wine you could think of. The go-to for any speciality (photos are slideshow).

Stop 3 – Japanese Tea Garden

We had an early lunch nearby, sitting outside in the very welcome sun, and then hopped back on the trolley for a ride to the natural history Witte Museum (dinosaurs, etc). That was not our destination though. From there we walked about twenty minutes through the expansive grounds of Breckinridge Park – the land having been donated by a man of that name. It’s a huge acreage and wonderful open space for the residents.

Our destination on this walk was the Japanese Tea Garden. Unlike the Botanical Gardens, this small and pretty garden is free to access. It was busy but easy to get around. We saw a marriage proposal take place right in front of us, so sweet. I had a chat with the bride’s father, who’d come in from Houston to be part of the surprise. One very proud Papa.

There were other park visitors posing for photos in graduation gowns and hats. One little girl was also being posed by her mother – I’m guessing she graduated kindergarten, and that the photos were for relatives in Mexico. Then, as we were leaving, a young woman wearing a massive ball gown was being helped up the entrance stairs. I overheard she was fifteen – which means this was part of the traditional coming-of-age celebration for Mexican and other Latina girls. (photos are slideshow).

Stop 4 – Botanical Garden

We alighted and walked up to the entrance, only to discover an entrance fee, and rather pricey for the short time we would be there. So … back to the bus stop.

Stop 5 – San Antonio Museum of Art

Heading back into town, rather than the Museum of Art, we next stopped at Historic Market Square – which is actually Stop 9. This is a shopping area for Mexican handicrafts and souvenirs. Over 100 shops. There were some beautiful pottery and silver jewellery in amongst the clothes, blankets and kitsch, but we were strictly window shopping.

Stop 6 – Veterans Memorial Park and the Tobin Center

This was actually a couple of stops later (don’t ask me to remember why). The plaza is the site of statues commemorating service in the Vietnam and Korean wars, and smaller acknowledgements of all military.

And maybe by this point I was getting confused, as all this time I was so excited to find a paver commemorating a nurse, Gwen Osterberg. Like my name joined with Don’s! Except Don’s name is Ostertag, and I have only just now realised I was muddled – sorry Don 😦

The Tobin Centre is for performing arts. I was able to speak to the person at the box office but could not go further into the building.

Stop 10 – San Fernando Cathedral

A short walk from the plaza is the church in which “Ladybird” married Lyndon B. Johnson. I’d forgotten that so didn’t lead us down there. Instead, we got the next trolley for the short ride to San Fernando Cathedral. The bones of this cathedral date to the mid 1700s. It has been renovated over the years for various reasons, one of them being the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1987. A statue of him is situated inside. (photos are slideshow)

Across the road there is a statue to the original settlers of San Antonio. This introduced us to Canary Islanders, a small group of whom who in 1731 were ordered to migrate by King Philip V of Spain. “The earliest civilian colonists of San Antonio, this nucleus of pioneers from the Canary Islands, formed the first organized civil government in Texas and founded the village of San Fernando de Bexar in 1731”. Much more to learn about that! My attempt to photograph this statue was affected by afternoon shadows. Time was getting away from us.

Very close by is the San Antonio Courthouse.

Choosing not to attempt entering that building, we jumped on the trolley for a short ride to the Alamo site (Stop 12) and a walk back to our hotel for refreshment. We just missed happy hour closing at 5pm but the barman extended it for us. It had been a hot day and difficult to keep up enough water. I was so parched I had a beer! Almost unheard of for me, but he had a brand that is similar to German Weiss beer. That slid down easily.

Keeping it simple we returned to the same restaurant as the previous night. We’re trying to get smarter with the portions. We shared an entree of beef skewers and a main of chicken with Chipotle sauce. All gluten free so that worked well.

Earlier in the day I’d had grand visions of seeing an evening show at one of the many old theatres in town. But it had been a big sunshiny day. No prizes for guessing that sleep trumped the theatre!

And a closing note. We had been away from home for two weeks at this point and family were asking for “selfies” to be uploaded to Facebook. I nicknamed these our ‘PROOF OF LIFE” shots. Not sure it would seem as wryly humorous if we were doing the trip this year. Anywho … here’s the one from this day…