It is a fascinating story of the battle that lasted 13 days between February 23 and March 6, of 1836. There were 189 defenders, mostly Texans, that went up against approximately 1500 troops of the Mexican army. Of course, they never had a chance against such overwhelming odds, but is an example of men making the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.
As we began to enter the memorial, we walked down a walkway to the mission:
As soon as we entered the main building we were informed that there would be no photographs allowed, so there is nothing on the inside that was recorded. It was difficult to get the "feel" for the desperate situation that the defenders faced as there were high rise buildings all around the memorial. Part of the original monument and battlefield are now streets and businesses. It was still exciting to relate the actual site to the many portrayals of the battle.
There was a bronze plaque outside containing a copy of the letter that the commander of the Alamo (Colonel William B. Travis) had sent out to the world, carrying pleas for help to defend the Alamo:
Following our time at the monument, we went across the street where the Riverwalk started. We could still see the Alamo from the Riverwalk entrance:
The Riverwalk is a marvel in itself. It was constructed at a level below the street and consisted of about 2 miles of walkways along the river that had many shops, eateries and hotels along the way. Below are a few shots of this spectacular area:
There was also a chance to ride one of the boats on the river:
We passed on that as the walk was a much better way to see everything on the river.
Finally, we arrived at the area of River Center:
which was a huge enclosed mall, 4 stories high. There was every shop imaginable in this complex and one could spend an entire day just at this one location. We were getting a little tired of walking, so we called it a day for the downtown portion of our day.
We connected with our friends, Karen and George Foster, at a Mexican restaurant that was about halfway home for us, and not too far from where they were staying in New Braunfels, TX. It was called the Alamo Cafe, and it was a great place for us to meet and get caught up on our activities since last year where we both worked in Cody and at Amazon. They looked terrific - Karen had lost lots of weight since we last saw them - and we had a wonderful time talking about both of our adventures:
They are planning to spend the summer in South Dakota, working at a campground near Sturgis. That is one of the nice areas that we spent a little time visiting on our trip east from Cody last year.
Today we head for Fort Stockton, TX, in the middle of nowhere, but halfway to Las Cruces, NM where we expect to go tomorrow. It looks like another great weather day and it should go smoothly as we will be on I-10 the entire day...
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