Capital, Capitol... capital!!

For the most mundane of reasons - Dave needed an official copy of his driving record from the DMV, and he needed it sooner than it could arrive by post - we spent last weekend in Austin. Our business being dealt with astonishingly quickly (I think we waited in line for a total of around three minutes; might this be a record?) we pranced off to the city to see what we could see.


After checking in at our hotel (rather more plush than our usual standards, but we got a great deal online and we heartily recommend the chain), we decided to go downtown to the Paramount Theater to see The Long, Hot Summer (1958), starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Orson Welles, amongst others. The lights were already down when we went in, so we didn't get to see the gorgeous interior til after the film had finished - obviously I couldn't take any photos myself, but I encourage you to click on the link provided above which will lead you to some great panoramas.

The next morning saw us about bright and early, starting the day at Bremond Block, a beautiful neighbourhood of lovely old stately homes.






Already it was starting to heat up, but it wasn't unpleasant, and it was so great (and novel, after Houston!) to be in a city where it was possible to walk to places, we left the car parked at Bremond Block and made our way to the Capitol.


The gardens out the front looked impossibly green and cool as we approached the building; as we drew closer it really did look amazingly impressive.


And on the inside at least as much...




There are, of course, Lone Stars everywhere inside the building, from the doorknobs to the lights... (in fact if you look carefully at the light globes, they even spell something out)... the star up inside the cupola is eight feet across, apparently, and there's one in the hand of Lady Liberty, standing on the cupola's dome (I guess they're trying to cash in on the popularity of this blog).




And of course there are some corresponding ones below it:




We caught the first tour of the Capitol, and so were still able to fit in a visit to the Texas State History Museum before lunch. It had many interesting exhibitions, but there was a LOT of reading and less 'interaction' than promised, so we were quite glad to sit down in the museum's cafe and have a break.

After lunch we walked up into the northern part of the city, past the university and some street markets, and found the Neill-Cochran House.


Built in 1855 as a residence for a family, but never quite finished, the house has been beautifully preserved and restored, and has lovely interiors. There were just four of us on the tour - including another Aussie, a guy who's been living in San Antonio for the last 30 years but whose accent still gave him away - so we had lots of time for questions, and to look at everything in detail.


After being on our feet for most of the day, and walking quite a distance in the hot sun, we thought we'd take advantage of Austin's very progressive public transport system and catch a free ride back down the city centre, but after waiting for some time we found that the one we wanted, at least, didn't run on the weekend. We grappled with the automated info-line for at least ten minutes of our half-hour wait, and it was all becoming a bit farcical (not to mention hot and humid!) when a bus finally arrived... it wasn't free, as the Dillo would have been, but at $1 for 24 hours of unlimited travel we didn't feel ourselves badly done by.

Energy flagging, and having done more than we'd expected to fit in when we started the day, what better way to finish it than in the famous Driskill Hotel's 1886 Cafe and Bakery,


sipping iced coffee and eating apple cobbler?