Not-so-Caucasian Elvis in San Antonio

We left the kids with their new aunt Val and we went to see San Antonio. Not knowing much about it we didn't have high expectations. The nicer surprice it was. We entered by back roads, avoiding the highway. Suburbs were not the nicest ones, downtown not too interesting either. Skyscrapers, empty sidewalks and streets, standard. And it was cold too. So we sat down for a coffee in first coffee shop we found (or Forsquare found for us) to decide what to do next. Ok, so maybe we'll take a quick look at River Walk and Alamo and let's run back to the car!

It's not Venice, it's San Antonio!

But River Walk completely changed San Antonio to us. Long time ago the river was dirty and the area around it had the highest crime rates in the United States. Some busineswoman however noticed the hidden charm of it and in cooperation with authorities invested her money in cleaning the river and development of its banks. That's how River Walk started - a walk route going through entire downtown, full of cafes, restaurants, bridges and pretty, old buildings. Although some hotel chains executives should be senteced to lot of years of hard work for ruining the view with the ugly buildings...

Ugly hotels in San Antonio

River Walk is really a pavement on both sides of the river on level -1. It's really amazing, just a bit higher there is  concrete and pretty much lifeless business center of town, and just a few feet down, on both sides of the river there is a really charming park. And the climate down there is much nicer too. In the summer it's probably cooler then anywhere else. In a cold day like the one we've been there on, on the street level we were cold in sweaters and jackets, at the River Walk t-shirt was good enough.

River Walk

By River Walk we walked towards the main historical attraction of San Antonio, which is Alamo, earlier known as Mission San Antonio de Valero. Founded in 18th century by Spanish misisonaries it served for evangelisation of Indians. Then it was abadoned for a while until Mexican army rebuilt it into a fort, then rebeled Texans took over, who were there massacred by Mexicans, massacred afterwards by rebeled Texans. Life...

Familiar view...

We were there exactly on 177. anniversary of battle of Alamo. Not a big deal, but there were a few school groups and a line to church ruins was quite long. We decided to skip it then, but we did see a yard and a small museums in renovated barracks which were available without a long wait.

There were some maps and some interesting mock-up - at some of them you can see that the river was more of a creek back then and fort was surrounded only by a small irrigation canal. Palisade was not so great, on the other hand the number of artillery guns was quite impressive. If only we had so much if them during WW2 or fighting Russians in 2012 in Warsaw before EURO2012 game, then who knows what would happen... Anyway,Sam Hudson - leader of the rebbelion - knew that this fight was for nothing that is why he ordered the fort to be demolished after it was seized in 1836. The guys behaved like during Polish revolts against Russians and other occupiers. They said that strategic thinking is bullshit and they would die as heroes to be rememberd by the History. They would die for Texas.

Well, they did what they hoped for in late February/early March 1836. It took two weeks for Mexican army to finish the siege and lead the final assault. On March 6 at dawn they entered the fort. They lost 400-600 men and then slaughetered all 200 defenders. You can read all about it in a small museum  as well as about whole political game at that time between Mexico and States. Of course the History is told through people's stories as usual in States. What is really close to Polish heart is that whole romantic, heroic act is celebrated , even though it was completely against the strategy laid by the revolt leaders. This disobedience led to massacre, whis was completely without any sense and benefit as the Texan revolt ended one month later with the defeat of Mexican army.

Whole Texan story is very interesting. One leaflet said basically that Sam Hudson brought to Texas 200 American settlers and then demanded some "civil rights", which meant the right to have slaves. After refusal from Mexican government, which was against slavery he started a revolt. In Alamo museum one can read that if supporters of federal system won internal fight in Mexico with supporters of central government and Texas was granted wide autonomy (probably with a slavery approval) then Sam would become a true Mexican and Texas governor. If we ever have some time we'll defenitely read more about it.

Why Remember Alamo?

Let's go back to San Antonio. Further down by River Walk there is an old German neighbourhood King William. It's still kind of downtown but we feel like at far suburbs. Beautiful villas built in the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century, green, peace and quiet everywhere, who knows, maybe if we win a lottery we will move in here…?

King William

Last place we visited on our day without kids was El Mercado - Mexican market with souvernirs from the south, just the ones we've seen in Guatemala or Peru. We also went to a restaurant with great Mexican food, mariachi and black Elvis.

El Mercado

The area around El Mercado is not that nice. As it often happens here in the US, one or two streets away from downtown and King William, and suddenly it's much poorer, people start asking us for money, there are abandoned shops and dirty streets. But it doesn't change a bit our  delight over San Antonio.

Black Elvis

Tired and rested at the same time we went back to Floresville, to happy Maciek and Kalina who decided to learn to sit by herself on this very day. We should leave them more often!