San Antonio River Walk

We started the afternoon at Chris Madrid's.  It's in a not so good part of San Antonio but is so popular they added on and have two full parking areas.  You line up to place your order and then go and pick up your food.  They have the GREATEST hamburgers!  See for yourself!

After eating all that food, we needed to walk it off so we went to the riverwalk.  In 2009 they extended the riverwalk to the north.  They are currently working on extending it south (to the Guenther House and Pioneer Flour Mill).  Being a Saturday there were tons of people so we got on the water taxi to take us to new part of the river.  There are not a lot of hotels or food places in the new section.  There is a lock that you go through that was very interesting.  The city wanted the new part to blend in with the old part of the riverwalk and make the landscaping maintenance free and attractive.  They did a great job of that.  They added art work under the bridges and along the way that cost millions!  Think they should have gotten some of their money back!

The first part of the trip is through the hotels and the restaurant area that we've seen before but that is so pretty:

John, our great guide, both with boat and tour took us through the new section!   There are cool bridges to see, lots of old buildings such as the Pearl Beer Brewery that is now a Culinary Arts School, a museum and more.  The new artwork under the bridges cost a cool $300,000 to the artist each.  The only bridge that would show up the artwork in my pictures are the fish hanging under the bridge, they even light up at night.  There is one bridge with some very small mirrors made of some special polymer and steel that reflect colors and a bridge with small glass pieces that were made to reflect the surrounding colors of the riverwalk according to the artist and his 10 year old daughter.  One of the bridges plays bird and water sounds sounding like the Rainforest Cafe.  There are three concrete palm trees, some concrete benches that look like they are made of wood (at a total cost of $600,000) and a big rock cave with waterfalls at a cost of who knows how much!

When you enter the lock it takes 3 minutes for the water to rise 9 feet.  It is gravity fed and all the water is recycled in a tunnel.  It is very efficient!  At the end of the river there is a restaurant with many small waterfalls which represent the 11 springs that were there for the brewery.

At the end of the river there is a restaurant with many small waterfalls which represent the 11 springs that were there for the brewery.

It is difficult to see the waterfalls but they go down the steps to the water. The birds are sitting on the steps enjoying the water!

Enjoying San Antonio with John and Gloria..."Ain't Life Grand!"