travelling

Here are three pictures of New York.

The images are not as good as I wanted them to be, but I hope it shows how crowded the streets are.

Wonderful city.

We were just on time for the bus yesterday morning. The organization of the bus company is not as smooth as it could be, and it's important to be on time to make sure you actually get a place on the bus, even when you bought tickets in advance, like we did.

As a result of this, there is usually a fight just before the bus leaves, and this time was no exception. Sometimes it's between the operators and guests that were overbooked, but often also among the operators themselves, which is quite amusing to see. From a secured placed in the bus, of course.

The bus leaves from Chinatown in Washington D.C. and is operated by Chinese Americans. There was only one seat open when we left New York, after two ladies were left behind because they were travelling together. The first stop on the journey was in Baltimore, where the last passenger came aboard. There were more people waiting there, but the bus left and they had to wait for the next one, probably an hour later. The bus drove through to Delaware, and then to Philadelphia. We had a short break on the way which was very welcome -- we had left early after all and we didn't had a lot of coffee in the morning.

On arrival in New York the bus makes three stops: one on Times Square, near Madison Square Garden, and finally in Chinatown. We got of at the second stop, near the trainstation. It was great to travel together, with a nice destination and no rush.

The night before we left San Antonios we went out, so we woke up late in the morning. When we went to the Riverwalk after breakfast, there was a surprise: the waterlevel of the river was extremely low.

It turned out to be the annual river-cleaning period. In the week after New Year's weekend the river is emptied, and necessary work and cleaning is performed. The river was not entirely empty yet, see some pictures below.

This is the final part of a series of pictures of San Antonios, see also part one, two and three.

New Year's Eve we spent in a restaurant at the Riverwalk. From around 20:30 o'clock till 01:00 we had dinner and drinks.

At 16:00 o'clock our time it was New Year in Bulgaria, so we called Nadia and Milan, and an hour later we called Middenmeer and Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. Then at 23:00 o'clock it was New Year for Irena and Jonathan, so we called them from the restaurant.

At midnight we went outside and celebrated the New Year on a bridge over the river with fireworks and champagne -- just like a New Year's Eve is supposed to be; we really enjoyed that.

Here are some more pictures of our four days in San Antonios. This is part 3 in a serie of 4 articles (see part one and part two).

Sasha and Guus at the riverwalk.

There is a marketplace in San Antonios that is being promoted as "authentic Mexican marketplace, the largest outside Mexico". Well, that might be true, but it was not extremely interesting, nor authentic. We spent only a short time there.

Of course, being so nearby Mexico, we ate Mexican style food (Tex-Mex) and drank margarita's.

We have seen three movies about the siege of the Alamo so far: the movie at home, a History Channel documentary in the Alamo museum, and an IMAX movie. IMAX is a special type of theater, with a huge screen. Even though the acting in the IMAX production was very amateuristic, it was great to see the story on such a large screen (the movie used the set of yet another movie about the Alamo, that we haven't seen).

Sasha enjoying the sun.

Having drinks and tortilla chips at the riverside.

The house of O. Henry, an American journalist and author. It's a really tiny house, that has been preserved in its original form but was lifted and moved to a new location.

Picture of the Christmas tree in front of The Alamo, and in the background our hotel on the last night of our stay.

The second most famous touristic attraction in San Antonios is the Riverwalk (Paseo del Rio). The river that flows through the city is far below the streetlevel, and around the river are many restaurants, bars and places to sit.

This creates a very nice atmosphere, beautiful, alive but not too busy.

Here's part 2 of the 4-part series of pictures from San Antonios: The Riverwalk (see also part one).

The most famous touristic attraction in San Antonios is the Alamo, an 18th century fort that played an important role in the history of Texas.

In a battle in 1836 all Texan defenders, who were in a revolution against their Mexican ruler, were are killed after a 13 days siege. This battle not only delayed and damaged the Mexican army severely, but it also made many more Texans join the Texan army and inspired Texan patriotism. A few months later Santa Anna was defeated. A famous speech by the Texan commander before that final battle was then ended with the words: "Remember the Alamo!".

Today the Alamo is still a symbol for the independence and resilient spirit of Texas.

We visited the Alamo on Saturday, the first day in the new year. The weather was beautiful. On the picture above you'll see the Alamo on the right; the building in the back with the flag on the tower was our hotel, Emily Morgan.

When we visited the fort there was a guide giving a lecture on the history of the Alamo, specifically on the battle. We knew the story already, as we had seen a movie about it a few days before. However the gentleman who gave the lecture was very good, and it was interesting that he could point and say "...and then they came over that wall, right there...".

You can see the Texan flag on many buildings, here next to the flag of the United States. Texan is also called the Lone-Star State.

We also visited the cathedral of San Antonios, about 15 minutes walking from the Alamo. On this building Santa Anna had a red flag banner put. This banner was visible in the besieged Alamo, and it was a message saying that there would be no mercy given in this battle -- surrender or die.

The Alamo at night, the evening before we left.

I am leaving work early today; I'll be going in about 10 minutes. We're going to Texas!

Suitcase is packed. We'll take the metro to Union Station, and from there a Marc train to BWI airport. Our flight is at 18:10 o'clock, to Dallas, Texas, where we'll take another flight so we'll arrive in San Antonio around 23:00 o'clock. I'm looking forward to the traveling; it's fun and we'll be traveling together.

Yesterday I was home around 12:30 o'clock and I went to Chess in the afternoon. I guess I have to get used to the Dutch weather again: I left to work without a jacket and when I was done working it was pooring with rain...

I've put some pictures online; they are in chronological order.

I came home about 15 minutes ago. The journey went well, with an interesting trip from Baltimore to Philadelpha, later more.

Now I'll fresh up, and then I'll go to work.