Taking a trip ‘out west to see the great state of Texas had been on my wish list for some time, but visiting there had always been overlooked in favor of an international destination until April, 2019 when the time seemed right to see the Lone Star state. Planning an itinerary for places and sites we both were interested in seeing was actually pretty easy.
Texas is the 2nd largest state in the nation covering almost 270,000 square miles of territory, and just mentioning its name conjures up images of its legendary geographical attributes and independent minded people. It is a state blessed with a variety of geographical features, and it is famous as the setting of more than a few very profound moments in American history.
With only a week to visit, we focused on places ranking highest on our wish list, as chance would have it, all of these lined up on the map. After flying into the Worth area, we picked up our rental car and immediately set off on the hectic 4+ hour drive south on Rt. 35 to San Antonio.
spend our first 3 nights exploring the delights of San Antonio. We chose the Hotel Valencia Riverwalk which proved to be a very good base from which to launch our daily explorations of the area which included the historic Alamo. Our final morning in San Antonio started off with a last heavenly breakfast in our hotels very inviting Dorrego Restaurant – the baguette French Toast topped with fresh strawberries and blueberries was my favorite while Rick liked the Spanish Eggs Benedict. Both the coffee and service here were excellent too.
I took a few last moments to wander near our hotel in Old Town San Antonio and noted some interesting architectural details which have been thoughtfully preserved – moldings, cornices, arched windows, relief details – early Texas style but with Spanish influences too. Particularly attractive was the E. Houston Street Bridge built in 1925 with its graceful railings from the century style. On the bridges wide sidewalks were 4 unique pillars, 2 on either side. Each pillar had painted ceramic tiles depicting scenes of four of the five historic San Antonio Spanish Missions. In addition to all the major attractions and great restaurants, finding charming art,
architecture, bridges, gardens, curling staircases and walkways made Old Town San Antonio a delightful place to visit.
With so much still to see and do ahead of us, we were anxious to get on the road. It was warm, sunny and a perfect day for driving as we made our way out of the Old Town and Riverwalk areas of the city. We soon picked up Rt. 10 heading north followed by a stretch of Rt. 87 on our way into Fredericksburg, our destination for the day and night. The area called the Texas Hill Country begins shortly after leaving the San Antonio environs, and the area is home to some beautiful stretches of road, in addition to state parks, vineyards, breweries and towns. Fredericksburg is just one such German heritage town and is a relatively short drive, perhaps 2 hours or less with a stop.
Considered to be generally located north of San Antonio and west of Austin while sitting on the Edwards Plateau and Balcones Escarpment, the famed Texas Hill Country covers approximately 31,000 square miles or more miles depending on the information source – they say everything in Texas is bigger and theyre not
We would soon see that early spring in the Texas Hill Country can be breathtakingly colorful and this was a major motivation to visit this area. As we drove we began to get a feel for the wide open spaces and dry, brushy terrain in this part of the state, but roadsides had patches of cacti, pines and the purplish deep blue Texas Bluebonnets were in full bloom. We crossed both the Guadalupe and Pedernales Rivers on the way but werent able to see much of them. This early part of our drive while scenic in some places paled to the one we would be taking in late afternoon and the following morning.
