11th – 15th Nov
‘Keep Austin Weird’ is the unofficial slogan for this kooky city in the heart of Texas. It isn’t small, having about a million inhabitants; it is the 11th most populous city, the second most populous state capital, and it is one of the fastest growing large cities in the USA. It is a little pocket of liberal blue in the otherwise conservative red blanket of Texas. It has food trucks and independent eateries as it tries to fend off the the march of global food chains. It has city parks and a lake in the centre of the city. It has cycle lanes, paths & trails, pedestrian bridges, pavements, buses and the car is not king. You can dare to be different here, and nobody cares. It has more live music than you can shake a stick at and BBQ to die for. In short, it manages to combine all that is wonderful about Texas, Texans and the USA without a lot of the negative characteristics of American cities. It was delightful.
Our positive experience here was in large part due to the place that we managed to stay. This was a slightly shabby tree-filled city centre RV park, a stone’s throw from everything. It was mostly occupied by permanent residents in a variety of rigs from buses to old airstreams and definitely had an Armistead Maupin vibe going on.
We arrived at lunchtime having made an easy getaway from our carpark camp at College Station and it was a fairly short and easy journey into Austin. We set up and hot-footed it to the very nearby collection of food trucks for a very satisfactory lunch of fish tacos and Thai fried rice. From there it was an easy stroll to the nearby Zilker park, and the jewel of this area, Barton Springs Pool. This is a municipal outdoor natural swimming pool fed by a diverted thermal spring, keeping it at a constant 20-23 degrees all year round. It is about 3 acres of surface area and about 300m/900ft long. The water was amazingly clear and even during the ongoing unseasonably chilly weather there were some hardy souls doing some lengths. What a facility to have in the heart of the city, especially during those sticky Texan summers. The outflow stream was home to turtles (what I would call a terrapin) basking on rocks and tree stumps and allegedly the eponymous rare Barton Springs Salamander, only found here. Didn’t see any of those.
The next day was freezing cold. Brass monkeys cold. Arctic polar blast cold. We stayed in with the heating on and didn’t emerge until about 3.30pm when we walked up to the nearby cinema to see a showing of Bohemian Rhapsody. I know some critics are disappointed with some of the artistic licence taken, but who cares. It was, to someone who grew up in a Queen-loving family, magnificent. Rami Malek was fantastic. The cinema, in true Austin fashion was independent, had alternate rows of seats and fixed tables and waitress service of a fine selection of food and beverages. We had intra-movie beers and appetisers in lieu of afternoon tea and were happy as pigs in the proverbial. We emerged into darkness of evening and scampered across the road to a very nice bar which has a renowned food truck stationed outside. Once you have ordered food outside, they will deliver it, and you can eat it inside. How civilised!
The next day was slightly warmer and we walked across the river/lake to downtown for a snuffle around. The highlights of the day were a visit to the State Capitol Building and an amazing cup of soup and a shared toasted sandwich for lunch. We are easy to keep happy! Later that day we cycled down to Congress Avenue Bridge to witness an Austin spectacle, the dusk emergence of nearly a million bats from their roosts under the bridge.
(This is a mural. Not a real bat…)
The colony, now the largest urban bat colony in the world, originally moved in in the 1980s when the bridge was renovated, creating slots in the underside of the deck that was the perfect size for a bat to hang-out. (Pun intended.) They are migratory, and winter in Mexico, leaving Austin in the first half of November. We had it on good authority that they were still in residence but after very cold 90 minutes stood on the bridge, dusk fell and not a bat was to be seen. I think Mexico had called, and I am not surprised. The small assembled crowd drifted away in dribs and drabs as this realisation hit and the hypothermia kicked in. We went home to defrost and eat.
If Barton Springs is the jewel of the city, its crown has to be the town lake, (named Ladybird Lake after the wife of Austin son, President Johnson) and the 12 mile multi-use leafy trail that runs around it. The lake is formed from a dammed section of the Colorado River that runs through the city, and provides facilities for boating, rowing, sailing, paddle boarding and kayaking and the trail is a magnet for walkers, joggers, cyclists and countless dogs. We spent a very pleasant few hours doing the loop the next day, marvelling at how these sorts of facilities completely change the feel of a city. It was a joy. The fine day was capped off by a fine dinner. We walked half a mile to an Austin institution, Terry Blacks BBQ. We could see it was popular by the fact that the 30 min queue for the canteen style restaurant was snaking out the door into the cold. The waiting was assuaged by the fact that you could start drinking your beer whilst standing in line. Also civilised. It was Delicious. I need say no more. No carry-out boxes for us. Ate ’til we we were groaning.
We were sorry vacate our little slice of Austin heaven the next day, but onward we must roll, further into Hill Country, Texas.