San Antonio Sunday

San Antonio is ‘the home’ of the Alamo.

The sun poured in through the main doors, everyone was ready for God.

The wonderful thing about travelling to Texas, well one of them, is that getting up in the morning is effortless, rising at 4am a bagatelle.  I was in San Antonio for five delightful days of blue skies and a pleasant twenty-two degrees.

Stepping out of the hotel at 8am, and a short walk enabled me to join the beginning of Mass in San Fernando Cathedral round the corner. The place was packed and the clergy and their entourage flounced up the aisle to the music of a Mexican marching band!  The sun poured in through the main doors, everyone was ready for God.

And sun was a feature of each day as was the warmth of the people. This is city is actually the seventh largest in the USA, by population, however it has a wholesome small town feel.

San Antonio is ‘the home’ of the Alamo. The Battle of the Alamo raged from February 23 to March 6, 1836. Mexican forces defeated the outnumbered Texian force, including Davy Crocket and Jim Bowie. (Davy was never overpowered in his TV series, where his star status was rebooted in a 1950s TV show by Walt Disney.

However the Battle of Alamo ignited greater numbers around the Texian cause. People from across the eastern states in North America, England, Scotland and Ireland all bundled in for some action. Thus after much more fighting Texas became independent from the Mexico.

Soon you appreciate how very Spanish/Mexican this whole part of America really was. From the 1600’s the then super powers, Britain, France and Spain were jostling for poll position. Spain were league leaders down here.

The site of the Alamo is now a very popular tourist spot, and nicely done, complete with men dressed up as Texian rebels and providing displays of how to fire a musket.

The San Antonio river has been cleverly turned into a River Walk which meanders through the city, decorated with bridges and crossing and places to sit, eat, drink and soak up the atmosphere of tall buildings and lots of green bits.

San Antonio is nice place, lovely people and a must-go-back-again feel to it.  I barely scratched the surface - there are museums, gardens and so much to explore.