Day 1 - The romance of travel...

... is well and truly dead in most people's minds. Cheap flights, terrible delays at security, being stuffed in to cattle trucks all make it quite an unpleasant experience these days, so it was with trepidation that we set off for terminal 5 at Heathrow early in the morning. Drive was ok, even the M25 behaved itself for the majority of the time we were on it, Purple Parking was as simple as ever and then we arrived at T5. It's huge and, at it was empty. I mean really empty. No queue to drop off bags, no queue to get through security, a couple of minutes to have hand luggage checked. And then a huge luxurious shopping/ departure lounge. Result of what? Maybe BA has rediscovered the romance of travel after all? Then there was a 40 minutes delay on the tarmac, but hey, we'll forgive them as the plane was mostly empty so we ended up with rows to ourselves. The flight was a flight but BA seriously needs to work on its entertainment system. Instead I read "Three men in a float" which was a nice easy going story about three men who travel across England in an old milk float at 15mph. A homage to slow travel. And then we arrived.

Houston. Hmmmm, well I have no doubt the city is lovely but getting in to the USA is a nightmare for travellers these days. You fill out masses of paperwork online just so they can say you can get on your flight and then you have to fill in more paperwork on the plane in the hope that Homeland Security (rant has been removed) will allow you in. Why not just put up a big "Closed for Tourists and Business" sign and have done with it? Getting through security took almost as long as the flight and everyone has no sense of humour - we had to be on our best behaviour and bite our tongues. Alot.

dealt with we got a bus and collected a car and ventured in to the big wide world armed only with a map on an iPhone. There things went a tad awry. Houston is not the easiest city to get about in when you have no idea, or rather only a vague idea of where you're going. Suffice to say it went a bit wrong but eventually we managed to make it on to the right Interstate and headed for our first stop - San Antonio - where we were booked in to the Historic Hotel Menger which just happens to be right next door to the Alamo in the of the city. Our first impressions of Texas, that state of oil and desert, is that it is green! Really green! There are fields and trees and cows. And more cows. Who have cow friends. They love their cows, or cattle I should say as they all have big horns and are destined for burgers. We drove and drove and drove, which brings me to the second impression. It's a long way to anywhere in Texas. It's a big state. Eventually we made it and the iPhone's 3G proved iot's worth as the moving blue dot on Google maps took us straight to the front door and then to the side entrance where a nice valet took away our car in exchange for a bit of paper - probably not the world's best deal.

The hotel is lovely - very old world, Southern style to say the least and the Alamo is indeed right next door. San Antonio grew up around the old mission which is why it is dead centre. The rest of San Antonio seems to have retreated underground - more on that tomorrow. We had a wander and then went to bed as the next days drive was going to be even longer. This is the Alamo at night which looks very pretty and tomorrow we shall see what it looks like in day when it's open.