A Little Germany, A Little Hike & A Little Goodbye

Fredericksburg, TX

Crestview RV Park

 

 

While in San Antonio, we spent the day in Fredericksburg.  This old German-style town is known for its quaint European town, shops, restaurants, wineries, art, fruit and wildflowers.  If we were here in April instead of February, the area would be blanketed with bluebell wildflowers (see below).  But it's not wildflower season yet.  We loved this area and are definitely going to come back in April and maybe May one year as there is so much to do.

 

(borrowed from the internet, not taken by me)

The town has a section of Main St. known as the Miracle Mile.  This is where you'll find all the shops, restaurants etc.  We walked both sides and really enjoyed the stores.  Not just your typical touristy stuff.  Some really unique vintage and local made items and foods.

Loved the beautiful architecture.



Loved this rocker made out of old parts.  Lots of detail.

 

Can you believe this guy parks right in front as I was taking the picture?  Inside picture

is from the churches website as the church was closed.

 

We love to visit old churches, cathedrals and basilicas.  We wanted to visit St. Mary's, but it was actually closed and locked.  On a Sunday!  Unfortunately, the times we are in, we are finding this more often lately.  Churches were never locked.  What happened to "Sanctuary!"  (Hunchback of Notre Dame) But I digress. Theft and vandalism are becoming problems more and more.  We are now finding that you have to make an appointment to visit a church or be there right after a mass/service.  So sad.  This beautiful church has been around since 1846.

 

Steve spent a couple of years in Germany while he was in the Air Force.  He loved his time there.  Whenever there is a chance of getting good German food, beer or wine, we go.  When he saw the great variety of schnitzel at Der Lindenbaum we knew that's where we'd be having lunch.  I had my favorite, the Jagerschnitzel.  It was a pork cutlet, breaded, fried and topped with a creamy mushroom gravy.  Served with the usual red cabbage and potatoes.  When Steve saw they had Zigeunerschnitzel, he knew what he was ordering!  It's covered in a tomato based sauce with red bell peppers with a spicy paprika flavor.  It paired perfectly with a Spatenbrau Oktoberfest beer that was served on-draft.  He was in heaven!

 

 

Afterward we took a drive out to the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area to do a little hiking.

 

The dome of Enchanted Rock rises 1825 feet above sea level.

 

 

Getting steeper!

 

 

Going Up                                     And UP!!

 

 

Strange rocks shapes.

 
 

A close up of the rocks shows the colorful lichens growing making for the colorful green, red and blue colors on the pink granite.

Looking back towards the bottom.

We wanted to hike Turkey Peak (below), but we knew we'd run out of time on this trip.

 

 

See the people on the top?  They look like ants.

 

The sun is starting to go down.  Looks like we'll make it to the top just in time for the sunset!

Beautiful Sunset at the top!

 

Yay, we made it!
Hurley isn't as excited as me.

Now to get back down before it's pitch black out!

On another day while Steve worked outside Hurley and I did a little more hiking.  Not much exciting to see on this trail, but we did come across a few things.

 

 

I don't advise cutting into plants along a trail, but the cut out heart was kind of neat.

Then it was time to say our final goodbyes to our friends Perry, Kristin & Ethan.  We had dinner together and Kristin picked up these special cupcakes that tasted as wonderful as they looked!  There was a Lemon, Champagne, Italian Crème, Cookie Dough and I think everyone's favorite, Butter Finger.  Lemon was a close second!