We had a lunchtime flight out of Heathrow to Austin where we were spending the first two nights of our Texas road trip. We had decided to treat ourselves and fly premium as it wasn’t too much more expensive. It also meant we could have a 2-2 seating configuration so Tom & Iz sat in front of Stu & I.

^{The food was quite good – couscous salad, braised lamb and passion fruit panna cotta.}

We arrived in Austin at about 5pm, picked up our hire car which was an absolutely huge truck, stopped off at Chilli’s for some food and made our way to our hotel for the next couple of nights – a Hampton Inn.

Texas State Capitol

Our first stop of the day was the Capitol Building which is the seat of government for the state of Texas and was constructed in 1882. We hadn’t really done any research so went to the visitors center first not really knowing what to expect. It was really good. It was full of exhibits including a lego model of the whole capitol building.

We worked our way round all the rooms where there was loads of information about the early settlers to Texas and how the building was constructed. We really enjoyed our time here.

^{Inside the Visitors Centre.}

We then walked across the green to the Capitol building where we were able to join a free walking tour.

The inside of the building was really impressive and we were able to enter the viewing gallery and watch the senators discussing legislation

^{Inside the Capitol}

Colorado River

It was still a little early for lunch so we drove down to the river so that we could have a short walk. There were some lovely views of the Austin Skyline and we walked passed a group of turtles sitting on a platform in the river.

^{The Colorado River}

We were beginning to get tired – and we had a bat tour that evening so we headed back to the hotel to chill for the afternoon stopping off at the Cheesecake Factory on route for lunch. Stu, Tom & Izzy all had burgers or sliders whilst I ordered my standard Cajun Chicken and mashed potatoes.

^{The Cheesecake Factory}

The Bat Tour

When researching things to do in Austin I learned that millions of bats fly out of the Congress Bridge every evening at sunset. I thought it would be good to pair this with a boat trip so found a company which offered bat watching boat trips.

We arrived for the tour a little early so had a wander along the river looking at the skyline and doing some photography.

^{Waiting for our tour}

The boat trip was really good. We were taken up the river and the guide told us some of the history about the buildings which we passed and pointed out wildlife to us.

^{Boat trip on the Colorado River}

We then sat on our boat under Congress Bridge waiting for it to get dark and for the bats to come out. They took a while to appear and then you could just see a steady stream of bats emerging from under the bridge – unfortunately it did not really show up on photos.

When the boat trip ended and we were walking back to the car we walked under the bridge and the bats were still flying out! We headed back to the hotel as the following morning we were driving to San Antonio.

^{Austin Skyline at night}