Touring the San Antonio Lights from La Villita to Main Plaza

[Now for] A few more sights from our tour of lights in downtown San Antonio, you can see my first two posts on the River Walk and Alamo Plaza by clicking the links.  From Alamo Plaza and the River Walk we [made the short walk to] headed to La Villita, a village of shops [near the convention center] {and which was quiet with the shops closed for the evening}.

Most of the shops, although closed for the evening, left their lights on for charming effect.

I had read the lights from the 2011 River Walk display, which was given "thumbs down" by tourists and locals alike, were reused here.  Interestingly, our city leaders were convinced by the lighting designer that these lights would not show up well when draped over trees.  They look quite good recycled this way.

The Tower of the Americas encircled by alternating red and green commands attention from almost everywhere in downtown San Antonio.



The same for the Tower Life building.

Even the revolving door at the Palacio del Rio hotel displays holiday spirit.

The trees in front of the convention center draped in white lights

The next tallest building in town (Tower of the Americas is the tallest) and one of the tallest hotels in the world at 38 floors is the Marriott Rivercenter.

Another look at the River Walk from the Market Street bridge.

Back in the car I get a shot of the new Tobin Center, it's modern steel wall featuring festive lighting for the season.  (We're not done yet, just heading over to Main Plaza for a special event)

Parking near City Hall, we walked alongside San Fernando Cathedral taking in the sight of the courthouse outlined in lights like a giant gingerbread house.  That's the Tower Life building behind the courthouse.

Very pretty

The Cathedral is usually draped in sparkling white lights for Christmas, but not this year because we have a special event in store.

There were surprisingly few people waiting but more were arriving by the minute.  At precisely 9 pm the crowd had grown to several hundred and the Cathedral went dark.

Magic is about to happen and I'll show it to you in my next post.