Gruene and New Braunfels, TX

Today we went to Gruene which is pronounced as Green, Tx. It is an old town that has a few of the original buildings still standing. The first settlers came in 1845 and of course their name was Gruene. The two most interesting buildings (to me) are the General Store and the Dance Hall. It is said that the dance hall is the oldest in Texas and was built for the farmers in the surrounding area to have a place to gather for fun on a Saturday night.

The general store is in the foreground while the dance hall is inthe background.

Another building of interest was Catus Jacks. We did not go in as they sell antiques but the building itself it different - tin sides. And as you can see in the picture, a tin roof that has gotten very rusty!

After walking through town and buying some homemade dried sausage for Dean and some Cinnamon Honey Butter for me we decided it was lunch time.

There are several restaurants in town, most all of them in old buildings. We decided on the Gristmill River Restaurant which is in a old gristmill that dates back to the 1870's. You can tell the old parts of the building - it creak's! The weather was so beautiful today that we decided to eat on the terraced balcony overlooking the Guadalupe River. What a nice dining experience it was. I'll not go into the food except to say that it was Texas size servings and delicious. I highly recommend eating here if you are ever in Gruene!

After lunch, we drove into New Braunfels to Landa Park. A really pretty city park with water, ducks, geese, more ducks, birds, more ducks - get the picture? At one spot we saw some young men jumping off a rope into the river - burrr. It wasn't that hot today and the water was cool.

After a busy day with a lot of walking we came home and relaxed - that means took a nap. Ahhh the perks of being retired!

Tomorrow we are heading for Luckenbach, TX. for the Texas Indenpendence Day Festival. Will include it in my next post.