Austin, Texas

Along with my Dallas trip, I visited Austin for a week to visit another client. Austin though smaller than Dallas is capital of Texas state. Texas state has long history with Mexico and has gone through civil war. In USA, every state has their own flag which may be displayed or not prominently by citizens but in Texas it cannot be missed. Texas flag is blue, red, white with a single star. Texas is also known as "The Lone star state". The Texas residents seem to take pride in their culture of being rugged and anything unique is related as Texan. Apart from farming, livestock, oil has become huge industry in Texas. Austin's embrace of alternative cultures is commonly emblazoned about town on T-Shirts and bumper stickers that read: "Keep Austin Weird." Austin is also marketed as the "Live Music Capital of the World" due to the large number of venues and "Silicon Hills" reflecting the many technology companies.

There are many options to go from Dallas to Austin like flight, train, bus or drive. Instead of flying I chose to go by Bus and come back by Train. For bus, chose to go by Vonlane buses who run luxury private buses between cities of Texas. It turned out to be great experience almost aeroplane style. The journey was enjoyable being able to see countryside, personal AV station and food and beverages all included in ticket, $100.

In Austin, stayed at Guadalupe street which is in downtown Austin again close to where I was supposed to visit. While entering into Austin I noticed the serene waters of Colorado river with plenty of kayaks or boats in it. I immediately made up my mind to visit it. After checking into the lodging took a long circuitous walk first going to Whole Foods (now acquired by Amazon), then onto a pedestrian and cyclist bridge to cross the river and then onto a trail and public garden Auditorium shores park.

Austin, Texas at World Foods Market

Walking trail over Colorado

Train bridge over Colorado

View of Austin skyline

Live music performance at the park

Memorial for Homeless!

Over there, there were some music performances and food trucks were parked with sprawling views of Austin downtown skyline across the river. On that day there was a 5k marathon too was going on with theme of "keep Austin weird" which had people running in funny costumes.

Next day early I started and went to Zilker park which has Barton creek municipal pool and boat rentals. The bluish green clean water was so inviting. I headed to boat rental and rented a kayak for an hour and went paddling all the way to mouth of the creek. Being a holiday there were hoards of boats and kayaks. The locals seemed so comfortable that they would take their dogs too on spring board. The whole experience was so enjoyable. The Zilker park has other attractions like a miniature  railroad which takes one around the Zilkar park.

Barton Springs

Barton creek with kayakers

Barton creek with kayakaers

Barton creek with kayakers

Like Dallas, looked up and booked Austin city tour which was to start from Austin center building. The tour passed through Austin downtown and first took us to Texas Capitol which is an impressive building. A large source of pride for the city and the state, the State Capitol is a beautiful building wrapped in Texas pink granite. Texans take pride in the fact that the State Capitol is actually 14 feet taller than the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. It is completely open to the public seven days a week free of any ticket. The interiors of building is equally impressive with grand ceiling, sculptures, rooms, displays.

Capitol, Austin, Texas

Ceiling of Capitol, Texas

Interiors of Capitol, Texas

From there we went past University of Texas which is one of the leading universities in USA. From there we went to graffiti park where enthusiasts have come and painted stuff using spray paints. This is yet another enforcement of hip culture of Austin.

Graffiti park, Austin

Graffiti park, Austin

From there we went around and came to Austin murals where again the artists have done their job well by painting an Austin postcard. From here the road is 1st South street which goes straight to Capitol passing over Colorado on Congress Avenue bridge. The view all the way to Capitol is breathtaking.

Austin mural

Congress Avenue

The bridge is home to a huge family of bats under it. The bats come out everyday after sunset. To view this show, people gather at the bridge and it becomes difficult to find a spot. There are few boats and kayaks who come under the bridge to witness the same. The view at the time of sunset is really mesmerising with fading orange light glistening the buildings and the occasional clouds.

Sunset over Congress Avenue bridge

 Next day I took the train from Austin to Dallas. The Austin station turned out to be paltry. It had access only from one side of the station. There was a mainline and a branch line. The people had gathered for the Texas Eagle train which travels from San Antonio to Chicago every day. So, today the train was coming from San Antonio. One had to do airline style checkin where a helper would tag the luggage and put them in the train. The people patiently waited in the station building instead of loitering around. When train arrived, everyone made a nice queue and one by one they got in after ticket being checked. The train seemed to be full it being very cheap mode of travel and connection for smaller towns. My ticket was $37 compared to $100 of Vonlane. The ride was leisurely taking a different alignment than road and stopped at few stations like Taylor, Temple, Fort Worth and last Dallas. Enjoyed restaurant car which was well served and had nice burger lunch. Resolved to travel by Amtrak again on same route end to end.

Austin station

One of the train stops

Lunch onboard Texas Eagle

Austin become my more favoured city between Dallas and Texas due to its calm and unhurried and not so daunting outlook. May be because there is a river which runs through it calming the nerves.

DFW - Dallas Forth Worth, Texas

In July 2017 I happened to go to Texas, Dallas & Austin to be precise on business i.e. to visit clients for some meetings and work for a month and half. I took Emirates Mumbai - Dubai - Dallas (DFW) flight. The second leg is one of the longest flights of 15 hours on a wide-bodied Boeing 777-ER plane. Landed at DFW (Dallas - Fort Worth) in the morning around 11AM and taxied to Extended Stay very to the client's office in the North Dallas area. Got a taste of American stick to the rule book when I was told that check-in will happen only at 3PM and had to sit out for 2 hours! Anyhow the lodging was decent.

During the week, just walked to the office and to nearby Chipotle or other eateries nearby. I don’t drive in the US so walking or public transport or can is the only option. Dallas is spread out and is known to be not walkable. The chance to venture out happened on the first weekend. Took DART from Forest Lane station was a mile long walk. From there took the Red/Orange line to Westend which is Dallas downtown.

DART to DFW

The station is located in the historical heritage district which has red brick builds and same brick cobbled streets.

Historic district with vintage ride

Historic District

I looked up Dallas tours and found a Dallas City tour which starts from JFK memorial Plaza. John Frederick Kennedy (JFK), one of the most charismatic US Presidents, has the unfortunate connection to Dallas having been assassinated in the most sensational manner possible. The city tour for 2 hours was mostly about JFK than about Dallas. The bus was a minibus painted with JFK and the other identity of Texas being Cowboys and Rodeo.

Dallas City Tour bus

They had a video with a program mostly about JFK. First the bus took us around Dallas downtown pointing out main attractions like the Art Museum and First Baptist church.

Dallas Museum of Art

We stopped at The Pioneer Plaza which has bronze sculptures of Cowboy and the longhorn cattle. The longhorn is due to the size and shape of horns on the cattle. The sculptures were impressive.

Cowboy sculpture

Cattle sculpture

The Downtown had tall impressive buildings of banks and companies. There is also an impressive 30-feet model of the human eye which seemed so real with blood vessels and striations in Iris.

Dallas downtown

Dallas eye

From here on started the story of JFK. We first visited Dealey Plaza which is a 6-storey red brick building on whose 6th floor Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John Frederick Kennedy while he was being driven in an open car on Elm street amid all the fanfare with people lining the street. This may be one of the macabre assassination which was caught on camera where one could see bullet blowing off JFK’s head. The Dealey Plaza has been declared a monument of national importance. There is a X on Elm street exactly as the spot where the bullet hit JFK.

JFK Memorial Plaza

Dealy Plaza

Spot of assassination

From here we drove all the way to 1026 N. Beckley Street in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas where Lee Oswald Harvey, the assassin of JFK lived temporarily. The house is now a memorial for JFK with original preserved newspapers of the next day. The tour guide enthusiastically spoke about the entire JFK assassination episode. They also passed by another spot where Oswald shot a police officer before being captured at nearby Movie Theatre.

Newspaper of that time

Lee Oswald Harvey house

There is extensive literature on assassination, its motive and subsequent murder of Oswald. On return the video in the bus showed eerie trivia about similarities between Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy’s life and death both of whom were presidents who have been assassinated. Overall I felt that amused obsession of this tour with JFK and his assassin and drawing comparison to Lincoln.

I came to know that Dallas has a heritage streetcar called M-line Trolley. I came back again next day to Dallas downtime getting down at Cityplace/Uptown where the M-line connects DART. The ride was pleasant and mostly had joyriders like me. The ride is free on M-line.

M-line Trolley

M-line Trolley

M-line Trolley

From there went to Klyde Warren park which was flocked by a lot of people. It had a walking path, fountains and a bar to have drinks. The M-line streetcar also served the park.

DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) is a Metroplex, a twin city. Sometimes referred to as Cowtown, it is by far closer to its cowboy roots than neighbouring Dallas. It has historic Stock Yards which used to be the hub of livestock or cattle industry in old times.

Fort Worth Stockyards

Photo-op with longhorn

The stock yards still have pends, barns to hold cattle with some cattle kept for display. There is a guided tour which takes tourists through all that is there to see and its history. Apart from tours, there are shows like Rodeo where cowboys hear cattle and display their rope skill to catch cattle by their horns or legs conducted in an arena called Coliseum. Then there were a couple of cowboys who set up a cart displaying the old ways of cowboys living on the move

Sculpture in Stockyards

Cowboy life

Rodeo

Stockyard station

where one could also try some of the rope tricks. Then there are restaurants in the Stockyards station building. In the evening, the Grapevine Railroad train with its massive engine came all the way inside.

4th of July is Independence Day in the USA and a public holiday. US cities have a tradition of public fireworks to celebrate independence day. For Dallas it was to happen at Cotton Bowl stadium in Fair park. There was an actual fair there with Ferris wheel, cable car rides, food stalls and other attractions. After savouring them all made their way to the stadium seating. The fireworks happened outside the stadium in a designated direction so all were seated in half facing the fireworks. There was a small band and music to keep the audience entertained till the fireworks. Eventually the fireworks started with a countdown around 8 PM and lasted for 20 minutes or so. At the upper edge of seating one could witness not just the fireworks but the Dallas downtown with buildings all lit up. It was an amazing experience.

Ferris Wheel Fairpark

Cotton Bowl stadium

Crowd gathered to watch fireworks

I happened to travel a bit in Dallas and found it to be quintessential American city with huge construction of buildings, multi-level flyovers, huge parking spaces and long distances, break from Newyork or Bay Area. Later came to know about a trivia is Dallas has more shopping area per capita in entire US. One of the people I met lamented that they are staying in a one big shopping mall!