Wednesday 12th July 2023 Fort Worth to Austin:
After a goodnight sleep we all met bright and early after breakfast at 8:00 am to begin our Contiki Tour.
To start our Contiki trip we met our fellow travellers in the lobby of our hotel and met Nicole our trip manager for this trip.
Nicole then began our kickstart meeting which had lots of great information including everywhere we were going, what was planned every day, what we will need to buy or bring each day, as well we general information about travelling through america over the next 2 weeks.
Once we had finished our kickstart meeting we made our way onto the coach and headed towards the Fort Worth Stockyards.
As we made our way towards the Fort Worth Stockyards, Nicole shared our day sheet for Austin with everyone which included what was planned for each day and times which is super helpful to organise your day.
Once we arrived at the stockyards at 10 am we had free time to explore the stockyards this morning before departing for the Magnolia Silos at 12pm.
I went and explored a different area this morning which was the historic district:
The historic district had lots of great shops including souvenir shops,candy shops,leather goods shops and cowboy boots shops of course!
After exploring the historcial district I made my way towards East Exchange Avenue.
Every day there is a cattle drive along East Exchange Avenue at 11:30 am and 4pm.
This cattle drive features a herd of Texas Longhorns cows along with drovers parading down the avenue which offers a glimpse into Fort Worth’s western heritage!
Here is a video of the Cattle Drive in Fort Worth!
Once the cattle drive had concluded I went exploring and found this really interesting bar called Fat Tuesday which makes frozen cocktails!
I got a Pina Colada and Hurricane Cocktail and enjoyed overlooking East Exchange Avenue.
I would definetly recommend trying Fat Tuesday Cocktail a perfect way to cool down from in the summer time in Fort Worth!
We all met back up with the coach at 12pm and made our way towards Austin.
On our way towards our lunch stop at the Magnolia Silos, Nicole got all of us to introduce ourselves on the coach microphone asking where we were from, what we do and what we are most looking forward to experiencing while travelling through america.
We arrived at our lunch stop at Magnolia Market at 1:30 pm
https://www.instagram.com/visitmagnolia/?hl=en
Located in Waco Texas The Magnolia Market is a shopping complex that has shops, restaurants and an outdoor lawn space.
This was such a cool place to visit and something i didnt expect to visit in Texas!
I went exploring and took some photos of the church and the buildings and found a great quote on one of the buildings saying ” Everyone Has A Story Worth Telling”
I found some food trucks out the back of the complex and tried an american chilli dog with bacon which was so delicous!
We all met back up with the coach at 2:30 pm and made our way towards our accomodation in Austin.
We arrived at our hotel accomodation at 5pm
Our hotel accomodation in Austin was Springhill Suites By Marriott Austin South.
https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/ausst-springhill-suites-austin-south/overview/
Once we unpacked our bags from the coach Nicole,handed out our hotel keys and we all made our way up to our rooms and got unpacked before our included dinner at Ironworks BBQ at 7:30pm.
We all met in the lobby at 7:15 pm and boarded the coach and made our way to Ironworks BBQ and got dropped off.
Once we arrived Nicole located our table and we ordered at the counter.
I ordered the BBQ sampler plate which came with beef, sausage, pulled pork, beef rib and macaroni and cheese.
This was dinner was so delicious!! Trying bbq in Texas was on of my main reasons for coming on this trip and it certainly didnt dissapoint!
We had a large table so we could all get to know each other trying the first of many bbq dinners!
After an amazing dinner the coach picked us up at 8:30pm and we got dropped off on 6th Street which is a vibrant entertainment hub known for its live music venues and incredible nightlife.
As we explored 6th Street we found a popular bar called Buck Wild which had frozen cocktails and even a mechanical bull too!
https://www.instagram.com/buckwildaustin/?hl=en
As we made our way along 6th Street we found a great bar with live music which was so much fun.
Here are some videos of live music in Austin:
After a great time of exploring Austin tonight a group of fellow travellers caught an uber home at midnight and went back to our rooms ready for another full day of exploring Austin tomorrow!
Safe Travels
Campbell 🙂
Cam's Travel Blog 