Austin

A few weekends ago we took our first trip west of Houston -160 miles to the state capital of Austin. Leaving Houston and driving through open countryside was bliss. There was gradual change in scenery from flat to “Hill Country” – the name for the area around Austin. It was wonderful to see hills after being in flat-as-a-pancake Houston. OK, so not the big hills that we love, but they were hills!

Austin, is quite different to Houston with a much more historical feel to it. It is also very relaxed and much more pedestrian and cycle friendly. We explored the city, some of the parks and visited the Capitol Building, which is 7 feet taller than the Capitol building in Washington DC - everything has to be bigger in Texas!.

Typically for us we could not keep away from food for long! We enjoyed delicious American and Mexican breakfasts. The Mexican included tacos, salsa, refried beans and other southern delights. I’m not sure you’d want to eat it every day but it was different and yummy! The Saturday Farmers Market was wonderful and so much bigger than the ones in Houston. We bought honey and local jams to take back. Remaining on the subject of food, we paid a trip to the home of Wholefoods Market, one of our favourite grocery stores. Some of you may know of Wholefoods from trips to the States or from the recently opened store on London’s Kensington High Street. For those that haven’t heard of Wholefoods they sell wonderful food. I’m waffling. Sorry. The reason for the trip to Wholefoods in Austin is that Austin is their head office and has the biggest Wholefoods in the states. Foody heaven so we returned with some yummy treats!

We very much enjoyed our trip exploring another little bit of Texas. Thanks also to our friends Adrian, Jon & Trisha and Ian for the social events in Austin too!