San Antonio & fîşeka $75

Saturday May 10, 2014

The weather is nice, breakfast is okay, hotel is good. We are at the mall across the street at 9:30 because today we have to "work" at Wyndham. Allegedly it only takes 2 hours, for which $75 is a good rate. We will be taken to an office by minibus, where we have to provide identification, credit card and virtually all personal information before being assigned to two very well-trained salesmen. They first check what kind of vacation trips one takes and then you watch a movie about Wyndham's point purchase and use system.

Afterwards, one of the salesmen tortures you with several calculations of how cheap it would be to buy points at Wyndham and what you would get in the several thousand accommodations, which, however, are all aimed at American families. He quickly calculates how much I will spend on vacations in 10-15 years and they would like to have that from me now. Now we are allowed to go next door, where this resort is located. It's actually just a high-rise building with apartments.

They are really great and huge and beautiful. But well, that wasn't the point of our vacation. But we'll look at it together (now we're back to being two). The view from above is nice and the photo yield is worth it. Then you can use the purchased points for apartments. 400,000 points are enough for a 3.5-week apartment vacation in the USA. However, they want $92,000 from me now and here for that. But no - there is quickly the daily offer, which of course only applies today and then never again - and that is $68,000 for these 400,000 points.

You don't need to use them all, so you don't have to buy them again every year, you can even inherit them. But you have to pay a monthly fee for the maintenance of the residential complexes, which will easily amount to around $1,500 EUR per year. Actually, you're acting as a bank that doesn't pay interest. Well, okay. It was quite interesting, but when I say that I don't want it today, they threaten again that they have all my personal data and I have forfeited the right to such a great offer for the rest of my life and will never get it again - and then Danny stands up suddenly and leaves us sitting there without a word.

As old salespeople, we consider this to be a stupid tactic. If you might tell people that they can still use the offer until the day after tomorrow, the sales would surely be higher. But well - we get our $20 down payment back from yesterday and actually get $75 split as a voucher and a credit card, and after about 2.5 hours we are outside in the sun.

We skip the shuttle back to the mall and walk along the red Courthouse with the round tower and come to the Cathedral, in front of which there are beautiful water features. The cathedral was donated by the people of the Canary Islands.

We board a hop-on-hop-off bus at the Alamo and are glad when the wind starts blowing. We drive along the old Pearl Brewery, through modern residential areas, briefly see the King William District, which should actually be called Kaiser Wilhelm District, and get off at the Hemisfair Park.

We walk along some old buildings to the Tower of the Americas. It is repeatedly emphasized that this tower is higher than the Needle in Seattle. Yes, yes, everything in Texas is bigger than anything else!

The view from above is nice, but not spectacular, because the charm of San Antonio is not the skyline but the beautiful neighborhoods and the areas around the Alamo and Riverwalk, which you can see better from below rather than from above. Downstairs we go to the 4D cinema and watch a film about Texas with shaking chairs, water, and wind in our faces.

Back to the tour bus, but since it never arrives, we walk through La Villita, a small artists' district, get ourselves a pretty delicious ice cream there, and walk back to the city center on foot.

We sit down for a coffee at the Hilton on the Riverwalk, which seems to be very unusual here. If you want to drink coffee, you take it to go at Starbucks, but you don't sit in the restaurant. But we are served with a huge silver pot of coffee, which also only costs $6.50.

On the other side of the river, we board one of the River Cruise boats and cruise along the San Antonio River for 35 minutes along the Riverwalk. Today it is 2.5 miles and will soon be expanded to 4 miles. After a flood of the San Antonio River, the natural course seems to have been influenced somewhat, which enables the extension of the River Walk.

We finish the tour at 6:00 pm and go early to Saltgrass Steakhouse for dinner, where we initially use my Wyndham voucher for super steaks. Afterward, we walk around the Riverwalk a bit and go back to the mall.

Temperatures reached up to 33 degrees today and our feet are burning. The stores here close at 9:00 pm, so we're early at the hotel.