March 21 2016 - Golf again
We woke up to a cold morning, 2 degrees, but a beautiful sunny day. After pottering around in the morning we headed out at 2pm for a game of golf. It was a little windy but it had warmed up considerably and we had a great game. getting to know the course much better. unfortunately there were a bunch of students there practicing for a high school tournament this week, which made the game a little slower. We realize thought that it is March, and we are golfing, and it is beautiful and sunny... not much to complain about really!!
We had dinner and made plans to cycle part of the San Antonio Mission River Walk/ bicycle trail. Derek loaded up the bikes onto the truck and we made a picnic lunch ready for tomorrow.
March 22 2016 - San Antonio Missions by Bicycle
San Antonio river walk is famous for its downtown section, complete with restaurants, bars, boat rides etc etc, but there is more to the river walk. There is a walking/bicycle trail that follows the river (often on both sides), that winds its way between 5 missions (Alamo being the most famous). We started at the San Jose Mission which is geographically approximately half way between the most northerly point of the trail (the Alamo) and the most southerly point (Mission Espada). Suitably sun-screened and lunch-packed, we headed South to the Mission Espada,stopping along the way to admire the old San Juan Aqueduct. We had lunch at the Mission Espada, siting on a bench in the mission grounds. Lovely! We then headed North on the other side of the river. The trail coming south was paved, but on the other side of the river was hard packed earth.. harder going on a full stomach in the hot sun, but we enjoyed the ride tremendously and stopped at the Mission San Juan on the way. All the missions have a similar story of being a means for Spain to 'occupy' the new world and spread Christianity to the 'indians'. The missions provided shelter and safety (from other tribes etc) and food. They taught them new farming methods and taught them the Spanish language and other subjects in mission schools. On the surface it sounds good, and I won't go into the cultural harm and devastation the mission system caused to the indigenous populations in this huge area of the continent. Suffice it to say that no amount of sugar coating will make the mission system anything but what it was. Occupation by foreign lands, enforcing foreign cultural and religious practices upon its indigenous inhabitants for their own purposes.
Anyway, it still makes for fascinating history and beautiful architectural relics for us to enjoy on our ride. We ended our ride back at the Mission San Jose (approx 20km) We were glad we only did half the trail so we can come back later this week for another ride to do the second (northern) half.
