San Antonio is a city of 1.6 million people and is the location of the most famous battle in Texas. The Alamo (Mission San Antionio de Valero) where 189 defenders fell on March 6, 186 after repeated attacks by Mexican Gen. Santa Anna's Mexican Army. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knifefighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee. The highly photographed chapel and long barrack are all that remain of the original fort which know sits in the centre of the city.
One level below the downtown streets, the popular Paseo del Rio (River Walk) is edged by hotels, art and gift shops, restaurants, sidewalk cafes, boutiques and live music. There are half hour river cruises which meander through this delightful area and the canal even goes right into a huge shopping mall and into the convention centre and some hotels. Driving through the city one would not notice that this almost subterranean area was there.
The Tower of the Americas at 750 feet offers breathtaking views of the city from the Observation Deck. Ross and Jill had lunch in the tower while we opted for dinner along the River Walk. A full day tour gave us the history of the area and visits to some of the outlying missions. Our two day visit was very enjoyable, however the heat was almost unbearable while touring the city and we were all exhausted at the end of the second day.
The road systems here are very good. Surrounding San Antonio are two ring roads which moves traffic very quickly and efficiently. As we leave the city we are on one of the ring roads. It is a ten lane freeway with another two lanes exiting and entering each side, this is then flanked by four lanes each way on the minor road, making a spread of 22 lanes of traffic. Can you imagine this in Sydney!? Most Texas cities are the same, admittedly the flat terrain makes this kind of planning easy.
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