San Antonio

San Antonio weekend

We left to San Antonio a Texan city known as an early Spanish colony 300 km from Houston on Saturday morning .

The highway was busy with weekend traffic though the Easy tag helped in the fast lane .

A Buccee stop on way to fill gas and caramel popcorn eats made us continue .

Our children had booked in Mencer a 150 year old heritage hotel right next to Alamo the oldest Spanish outpost now an UNESCO heritage sire and museum .

San Antonia named after the venerable Saint Antony was a missionary jaunt initially .

The Payyo Indians who had been in the land for ages joined the missionaries in building it .

Mexico was powerful in these parts but allowed European colonists to settle down too .

In 1821 Mexico took over ruled till 1836 where the fierce battle of Alamo took place with a sad defeat of the Spanish colonists and massive casualties .

The Alamo became a war cry for later Texans who won back from Mexico in San Jacinto battle in 1845 decisively .

Later it joined confederate ,took part in American civil war, and still later became lone star state of Texas .

Sorry for the Wikipedia sewn shallow history I comprehended ,

Iam sure with many factual errors .

The gist of it is the whole of Texas state had a huge Hispanic population starting as Spanish outposts had battles with Mexico ,stood alone to join later with

The US of A .

Today San Antonio like New Orleans is a tourist hub ,an European settlement town with heritage buildings and with millions of flocking tourists .

We went to El Mercado or central market a traffic free heritage market sqaure walkway of a Km or more full of colorful shops and iconic restaurants .

We had lunch in ill Mariachi the famous Mexican restaurant started in 1869 .

The place was blusterous colorful and packed as it was Saturday afternoon .

There were live Mexican hatted musicians ,long robed Spanish waitresses and waiters bearing laden drinks and food in abundance .

We had frozen Marguerite some crispy nachos with cheese dip called Keso

Enchiladas with tasty morsels and a chocolate molle

Photo sessions followed .

One thing I find in US people enjoy such eat outs heartily laughing backslapping eating noisily slurping using hands but being polite considerate and cheerful too .

None of the fork knife formality of staid British upper lip we expected .

We then walked around the market later drove to the hotel we had booked .

Parking in hotels in US unlike in India even when one has a room is to be paid and one pays a big amount too !

Luckily a public parking close to hotel reduced the exorbitant parking charges .

Hotel Menger had a hoary history of 150 years .

From the time we set our foot on its expansive polished floors and colonial poshness with antique pianos furniture mirrors telephones it was mind boggling in its beauty and luxury .

Our room too was a byword for European cosines .

After a nap we walked into nearby River front walk .

How countries abroad transform river banks canals ports etc into such places is an eye opener .

Sorry for comparing I truly wonder why we with eqaully good oppurtunities never do so ?

Fort Cochin to Mattancherry has a Calvethy canal bordering the backwaters but its a poorly maintained

A garbage strewn slum encroached stretch .

Its not that money is only problem

There are several central Govt schemes ,foreign aids ,which are allowed to lapse or funds misused with absolutely no planning no foresight and no creativity in our nation .

We cannot depend on a Kurien or Sreedharan alone for everything .

The river walk was one of a kind ,though a bit narrow with big crowd and no railings I wondered why no one fell into the streaming river ,as huge tourist barges went on it it cudnt be shallow .

But people are very disciplined like in road they keep to their sides and hardly jostle or push.

They stop if someone's taking a picture with cheerful smiles .

The place is filled with shops and restaurants .

We tried a Hard Rock café but they already had lots waiting to get in and closed down the waiting line till after present list gets ended .

So after an hour we climbed up stairs ( strangely I found no elevator or ramp and a CP teen had to be carried on his dads shoulders while his mother lugged the wheelchair .

I used to complain Indian public places being not disabled friendly but I never expected US to have some so too .)

We went up and on top too the place was colorful with cindrella horse carts taking tourists for rides magicians singers guitarists violinists all practiced their charms .

There was a highly rated Hot dog place on pavement with a serpentine wait .

We too bought some and some French fries from a Whataburger nearby ending with a frozen marguerite for me and my son in law .

We then got back and slept