Monday Bob and I played tourists. At 8:20 am we hopped on a shuttle bus to start our
Grand Tour of San Antonio.
The shuttle took us into downtown where our tour started with The Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero). Our guide gave us time to see the church and walk around the museum.
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| Our tour guide in front of The Alamo |
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Opening time at The Alamo (9 am) -
people waiting to get into the church |
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| Bob in front of the Long Barrack - movie and museum inside |
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| Gorgeous flowers |
Bob and I had never taken time to view the museum in the Long Barrack, so we did it today. We thought we still had five minutes to get back on the bus, but as we were outside listening to a ranger give a history talk, we saw the bus driver motioning for us to come to the bus.
We hustled over and got on the bus, sheepishly I might add because we were the last two and everyone was waiting on us. The whole bus was completely full (31 people), except for one seat. I took the seat. When Bob got on the bus, a child sitting in one of the seats had to move to sit on their parent's lap.
Our next stop was Mission San Jose. This is our favorite mission in San Antonio. Our driver giave us a 1/2 hour tour, then gave us another 1/2 hour to look around on our own.
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| Bob in front of our sightseeing coach |
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| Visitor Center display of the five missions in San Antonio |
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| Mission San Jose |
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| Interior of church at Mission San Jose |
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| A scalloped door |
Next we headed to Mission Concepcion where our guide talked to us about the artwork inside the walls of this mission.
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| Hand-painted art on inside walls |
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| Interior stairs - Mission Concepcion |
From Mission Concepcion, our tour route took us to Market Square, an area with Mexican shops, restaurants and a bakery. We had 1/2 hour to look around and shop (and get a treat at the bakery - we were hungry).
Next stop, Buckhorn Saloon and Museum and Texas Ranger Museum. Our first order of business was lunch so we got our admission sticker for the museum then walked a block to Toscana Ristorante, an Italian restaurant. It was okay, but we wouldn't go back.
We head been to the museums before, but we walked through again. I am fascinated by the big game heads, fish, and other displays in the Buckhorn.
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| Famous big game hunter |
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| Cobra and mongoose |
The following two stags locked horns in battle and died locked together. Things like this happen in nature.
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| Bob at the Buckhorn Museum |
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| Stuffed ring-tailed cats |
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| A Texas landscape at the Buckhorn |
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| Bob in the Buckhorn Saloon |
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| Selfie through a mirror |
When we finished at the museums, our bus picked us up for a short ride to the Japanese Tea Garden at Brackenridge Park. The garden was built in an old rock quarry and is quite lovely. It took us about 15 minutes to walk through the garden.
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| Japanese Tea Garden |
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| Suspended turtle |
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| Looking back at the pagoda |
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| Interior of the pagoda |
From the tea garden, we went back into downtown for the 35-minute narrated river tour. In the three years we've been in San Antonio, we had never done the riverboats! I'm happy to report it's a good value. Seeing the River Walk from the river is a treat.
The five bells below represent the five missions in San Antonio.
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| San Antonio's River Walk |
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| Lots of bridges |
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| Mariachi band serenading diners. |
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| San Antonio's Convention Center |
We returned back to the RV park around 5:00 pm. Both of us were happy we finally did the tour.
One of the few places in TX I think I'd like to see someday. Glad you shared the photos and the Japanese Garden I definitely could get into! :)
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