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.