I am in San Antonio this week and I am sharing some of my past visits to that city. Yesterday I showed you photographs of the River Walk and of some delicious San Antonio food. Today I feature the missions and the art of San Antonio.

The Alamo and the sister missions. You’ve seen the movie. Now see the real building, get the real story, plus marvel at the big old Live Oak tree, the interesting details in the adobe, the bullet holes. Don’t stop with the Alamo. Keep on walking, biking or driving out to the other missions built close together along the river. Start with San Jose, the Queen of the Missions and the visitor’s center for the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. There see elaborate designs on doorways and the rose window. Then go on south to the other San Juan Capistrano with its Romanesque arches; plain little Espada; and on your way back to the city, stop at beautiful Mission Concepcion, where we found present day worshipers tending to a memorial shrine.

San Antonio Art You can now reach the San Antonio Museum of Art by boat or biking on the extended River Walk. SAMA has filled the old Lone Star brewery building with art from ancient Greek to contemporary American, with a particularly nice collection of Spanish colonial. Loved Dale Chihuly’s glass ceiling. But don’t stop there, visit Southtown, a lively center of Hispanic arts, restaurants and shops and the Blue Star Arts Complex, galleries in refurbished warehouses. Besides SAMA, art shown here is from Casa Margarita and a glass shop whose name I forgot in Southtown and a San Angel Folk Art and a print shop at the Blue Star Arts Complex.