Again cool overnight, but bright and sunny when we woke up. Today the furnace worked as advertised!!
After breakfast we decided to head towards the city of San Antonio for some sight-seeing. We are only about 5 miles from the downtown core, but you wouldn’t think so when in the camp ground.
Our first stops would be a series of Franciscan missions that were established in the area around 1755. Today I’ll let the photos do the talking.
The Second Stop
Around the inside of the perimeter walls of the mission was the accommodation for the local Indian families. These families had been converted to the Catholic faith by the missionaries; above is the kitchen area for one of these families.
An Ornate Window known as the Rose Window
On the way to the fourth mission we passed and Aquaduct was built back in the 1750’s to transport water from the river to the irrigate the fields and provide power for the grist mill
Final Stop Mission San Juan
This was the only painted mission of the four. The four missions were a couple of miles away from each other and all within 5 miles of downtown.
After lunch we headed into the downtown area to find the River Walk, this is a 2.5 mile walk along the side of the San Antonio River, in this particular area a little Human intervention has made a square loop off the main channel. The city has made an excellent job with this walk, which has many river side pubs and restaurants on it. The bad news; there was a riverside Craft sale on today.
The bad news, mentioned above turned into good news (for me), there were only 8 craft tables!
Above is the city’s modern art contribution, “The Torch of Friendship”
We walked about 5½ miles which should get the weight back on track after Christmas, and the trip down. Although San Antonio is the 7th larges US city, it is very open with plenty of green space right in to the downtown area.