Marc's Public Blog

2024/04/11 San Antonio Missions National Park: San Juan, San José, and Mission Conception

π 2024-04-11 01:01 in Monuments, Museums

The national park is a set of 3 old Spanish Missions, and was interesting enough, to visit:

Seeing a small still working aqueduc was cool:

And here is the 3rd mission:

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2024/04/11 The Alamo

π 2024-04-11 01:01 in Monuments

When I showed up at the Alamo, I knew nothing about it, and the first day I arrived around 11:00 it was a mess of people and completely sold out for the day (both tours and even audioguides), quite disappointing. So I booked a tour the next morning at 09:00 as well as an audioguide as they complement one another (although you have to pay twice), and learned the biased history about the place, which is supposed to show that poor Americans got attacked by blood thirsty Mexicans, unprovoked (that part is not really true), and how they did indeed fight to the death defending the position, which helped other American troops later defeat the Mexicans.
The place has kind of a cult status for courage and bravery, somewhat deserved indeed, but both the tour and audoguide focus mostly on the battle and bravery, while skipping the context of this battle (Americans agreeing to Mexican rule to get land, and then later deciding to secede). Basically why weren't quite martyrs, but they did fight bravely

I'll add that getting tickets online is confusing, google gets you tickets to the church, which are free, but you need an extra ticket for the museum and ideally you want the guided tour or the audioguide, and those do sell out.

the church where the battle ended

some original frescos were found under the plaster

The museum had lots of artifacts, most of which were acquired by Phil Collins and donated to the museum:

cannonballs to musquet balls

When doing both the guided tour and audioguide, plus the museum, it took close to 3H. I still had to watch the movie after the fact to get the fuller story.

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2024/04/10 San Antonio's Tower of the Americas

π 2024-04-10 01:01 in Monuments

I typically always go for elevated viewpoints, and did the same, this time around, although after a longish wait for the elevator, we actually got stuck at the top without being able to get around for about 15mn until someone reset whatever safety got triggered and blocked us (high winds, maybe?). The view was ok-ish:

They also had a quick history lesson:

I'd say it's probably somewhat skippable, and somewhat out of town, but it was open when other things had already closed, so I went.

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2024/02/28 Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City

π 2024-02-28 01:01 in Mexico, Monuments, Museums

Chapultepec Castle is an interesting historical castle built in Mexico City, originally by the Spanish, and then it was taken by the French which brought a lot of cool things to it, including even some exquisite stained glass made in Paris.
It's pretty far out of the way, a 1h uber ride from town center with rush hour traffic and then It's a bit of a long walk through a park and then uphill from the street (plan an extra 20mn), and google says it can be very busy with long lines, but it was fine the morning I went (early morning is best)

Nice views from the hill:

Had to go through 2 lawyers of security that do not even allow water in. That was non ideal... Eventually got there though, and we paid a private guide who gave us a 1h tour:

the stained glass, shipped all the way from Paris by boat and re-assembled, looked wonderful

I looked up the address in Paris, of course that was over 100 years ago ;)

After the castle, it was another walk through the park to another exit and got to see many vendors, to go to the excellent archeological museum across the street (but still a long walk):

nice insomniac looking owl ;)

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2024/02/27 Pyramids of Teotihuacan, Just North of Mexico City

π 2024-02-27 01:01 in Mexico, Monuments

There isn't much left of the pyramid that was in Mexico City (Mayor Templo), but Teotihuacan is very well preserved with its multiple temples, and even some murals are still left, worth the side trip for sure.

Of course, there are some tourist attractions nearby that the tour got to visit first. We first got to learn how Tequilla is made out of cactus, as well as all the things that cactus can be used for:

there is an anti sweat layer inside that can be used as paper

the fibers can also be used as strings

mezcal is mostly tequilla with worms in it ;)

I did mention that masked wrestling is a big thing in Mexico?

Then it was time to visit the temples:

the murals were impressive

Very cool place, very happy to have seen it

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2024/01/31 Pattaya's Big Buddha Temple

π 2024-01-31 01:01 in Monuments, Thailand

While in downtown Pattaya, went to check out its big buddha temple:

nice view

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2024/01/31 Sanctuary of Truth

π 2024-01-31 01:01 in Monuments, Thailand

The sanctuary of truth is a super impressive temple around Pattaya, definitely unique, and still being improved:

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2024/01/30 Bangkok's Ancient City Park

π 2024-01-30 01:01 in Monuments, Ntrips, Thailand

I arrived a bit late from Sapporo that day, but enough to check in the hotel in the middle of Ancient City, and have a nice yummy dinner:

The next morning, it was time to visit the park, which is a smaller recreation of all of Thailand, although it is not small in any way, it takes several hours to get around it in a golf cart:

Thailand likes reclining buddhas :)

you could walk the floating market and of course yummy drinks :)

It was a impressive and well built place, definitely worth at least 3 hours with a golf cart, and more if you can:

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2024/01/30 Temples on The way from Bangkok to Pattaya

π 2024-01-30 01:01 in Monuments, Ntrips, Thailand

While going from Bangkok to Pattaya, stopped at a few viewpoints and temples on the way:

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2021/12/30 Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte

π 2021-12-30 01:01 in Monuments, Paris

I had never heard about Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte, it's about 1H outside of Paris, an was a famous castle with fancy garden that were used as an example for Chateau de Versailles, built later for the king. It's a pretty impressive castle that I'm happy I got to see thanks to my dad: