Biking the Spanish Missions

Today we rode our bikes away from town to tour the historic Spanish missions along the San Antonio River. The  Spanish Empire built five missions along the river here to fortify the territory and to convert the indigenous people to Catholicism. The Spanish forces were moving north through Central America into Mexico and north onto the North American continent. They wanted to protect this territory from invading native tribes coming from the north.  
They built the missions beginning in the early 1700's. In recent times there has been much restoration done to bring the buildings back to a useful state. The National Park Service owns these properties and is dedicated to preserve and refurbish them for future enjoyment. The churches are all being used for weekly services.
There is certainly a lot of history around the San Antonio area and the Spanish missions were very important to the development of the region.

This is the bedroom upstairs in the front of the fifth wheel.

Front closet, dresser and TV!

The San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo Mission circa 1720. This was the most elaborate of the missions.

lots of arches and passages made up the main building. the grounds had housing and community buildings. This was considerd the queen of the missions for it's size and intricate architecture.

Hark the raven on the dome.

The front of the church had beautiful sculpture incorporated in the design.

Along the perimeter was housing for the people of the mission.

Flying buttresses to strengthen the walls.

Mission San Juan Capistrano has had much restoration done in the last few years.

The church has been plastered to strengthen the crumbling walls.

The interior of the church.

Cock-a-doodle-doo

Mission San Francisco de la Espada is the furthest from downtown San Antonio.

The original front of the church still is intact.

After our bike tour we returned to our camp on the pool.