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).

Yesterday we watched a movie on the computer, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Sasha took the DVD from an automated machine, which works similar to a soft drink machine: just pay and the DVD becomes available automatically. So instead of going to a DVD rental place you can very quickly rent a movie using this machine.

The movie was about two people and their relationship, and about a company providing a memory-erasing service, to let people forget old ex-lovers. The story was enjoyably complex, which made watching and understanding the movie more difficult than usual but I liked that. One of the main characters was Jim Carrey, who played a very different character than the usual roles he plays. We liked the movie a lot and it's worth seeing. The nice thing about a DVD movie is that there are often bonus things on the DVD. Next to the movie for example this DVD had a commercial for the memory-erasing company.

The movie also played in the Toneelschuur a while ago; I remember reading about it in their magazine.

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.

Yesterday was my first day after our short vacation. Our project is quite busy, and as I had a lot to arrange I stayed till 20:00 o'clock.

I walked home, where Sasha had also just arrived, and we went shopping together. We had a very late dinner at 22:00 o'clock. It was though to wake up in the morning, but a nice breakfast -- fresh Italian bread with cheese -- and coffee at home made for a nice start of the day. I walked to work through the Washington drizzle (motregen); very refreshing.

We're back! We just came home from a wonderful vacation in San Antonios, Texas.

It's a very nice place to spend a long weekend like this, and we had Tex-Mex food, tequilas, very warm weather and a beautiful river side.

Now quickly to bed, as normal life will continue tomorrow. We're greatly refreshed and ready for work again! Of course, later this week more, with stories and pictures.

Let me take the opportunity now -- I haven't been online in days, which hasn't happened in the last year -- to wish you all a very good 2005 from Sasha and me. Best wishes, good health, and, perhaps for some of you a visit to the States this year?

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.

In preparation of the trip we will be making this weekend we saw the movie "Alamo" yesterday.

This was the first rented DVD we have been watching here and we were watching it on our PC. It worked well, but I'd like to connect to PC to our TV as that screen is bigger and has more contrast.

The movie describes the war between the United States and Mexico about the area that is now the state of Texas. A central building in the movie is The Alamo, a fort in San Antonio, Texas, and that is exactly were we will be flying to this afternoon. We're going to celebrate New Year there. After two very busy weeks I'm really looking forward to spend a long weekend together there, down South.

We didn't buy breakfast this weeked, and somehow there were no donuts with the coffee downstairs today. So I bought breakfast on the way to work.

I went to "Brooklyn Bagels". The smell and atmosphere there reminded me of our first summer in the U.S., in the resort in Tannersville, NY.

A bagel is a typical American thing; it's a circle shaped bread bun, thick, and more chewey than regular (European) bread. You can eat them as-is, but they are often toasted. There's a huge variety of flavours: this morning I had a regular bagel, but there are also bagels with cinnamon, poppy seed, onion or salt, or for people who can't choose: "everything".

I had egg salad on my bagel -- not a very smart choice when it comes to eating decently in the office.

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas. It was a really nice experience to have a Christmas with a five year old child that wakes up in the knowledge that Santa Claus brought the presents that are under the tree. We put cookies for Santa Claus, and some food for the reindeers, and indeed, in the morning the food and cookies were gone!

After breakfast we gave each other presents under the Christmas tree. This was my first American-style Christmas. It was a lot of fun to give and receive the presents. The rest of the day we took it easy and we cooked a huge meal: turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, salads. For desert we baked a chocolate cake.

This morning we had fresh bagels for breakfast. It is snowing outside; little snowflakes are whirling down. We're going out now, to downtown New York.

Things are getting up to speed at my job. I am working now on a major project we are doing, I started helping out on that project Monday. It's really nice to be part of a project: feeling the rush, getting things done and working under some pressure makes working fun.

I am making long days, much longer than at my previous job. I knew this in advance when I decided to go the US, and actually it much less tiring than I thought it would be. I guess it makes a big difference that the work I'm doing is so much fun. Also I'm glad that we live so close to my work so I don't have to commute a long distance to and from the office. Tomorrow a lot of colleagues will have a day off, as Christmas is coming and many people are traveling tomorrow.