The Lone Star State, Aug 27-30

We spent a night in Austin and two in San Antonio.  The Texans really were the friendliest people we've met so far in the US.  Great weather, great music  -  but a little too much Tex-Mex food!

State Capitol Building  -  the largest in the US and the workplace
of George W. Bush when he was Texas Governor.

 

Austin's tallest building: the UT Tower looms over the university campus.

 

Austin is home to the largest urban bat population in the US.  Here are 
1.5 million of them leaving Congress Ave bridge at dusk in search of food. 
 (Yep, we went on a bat-watching cruise  -  'Keep Austin Weird'!)

 

Austin lived up to its claim to be the live music capital of the world with
bands at most of the bars we visited.

 

We met Will and Brooke at Speakeasy; they took us on a crawl of 6th Street.

 

Some well-earned Hill Country wine-tasting at Grape Creek Winery.

 

Admiral Nimitz's birthplace in the German town of Fredericksburg.

 

Our first night in SA: margaritas on the Riverwalk.

 

An uncommercialised stretch of the beautiful river.

 

The Alamo fort: site of the famous 1836 battle in the Texas War for Independence
and now a shrine to those who died there.

 

The Alamo at night.
(This former Spanish presidio was originally built
 as the Misión San Antonio de Valero in 1724.)

 

Our friendly hostess in Mad Dogs British Pub!

 

San Fernando Cathedral is the nation's oldest surviving church.

 

The Mexican market place.