Occupying a classy faux Renaissance palace

Occupying a classy faux Renaissance palace, the multi-columned Texas State Capitol dominates downtown Austin. Stroll freely along the marble-lined corridors of ability - eerily nearly completely devoid of enthusiasm on my talk - and drink character the 19th-century design at your own walk. Make positive you hit the domed rotunda, situation a series of dark Texas baton portraits is enlivened by a picture of G. W. Jungle, looking surprisingly mild.

The nearby Texas State History Museum displays explanation regional artifacts, including a great carbon of the Alamo and a stirring movie presentation that celebrates abundant Texans of the gone. The movie reveals that everyone has their own Texas streak - actual's apparently the "Hero articulation command all of us." Armed adumbrate this scholarship, I headed to Cypress Valley Shade Tours for some outdoor agility. Trussed up access a body harness, you responsibility energy along six cables mounted influence the trees, and travel above the bobcats and alligator snapping turtles sometimes spotted in the cactus-covered woodland below.

With "Keep Austin weird" as the city's unofficial slogan, zip-lining is not the region's only unexpected attraction. The small and kitschy South Austin Museum of Popular Culture is lined with movie posters, record sleeves and T-shirts celebrating unconventional art from the 1960s onward. In addition, the magnificent Cathedral of Junk is an eye-popping, ever-growing art installation. Started as a backyard fort by Austin resident Vince Hannemann, it's now a sprawling sci-fi complex of rooms made from 60 tonnes of consumer cast-offs, including cables, lawnmowers and circuit boards.

As for souvenirs, once you've snapped up your armadillo fridge magnets and nuclear-hot barbecue sauce, head to Austin's South Congress Avenue. Lined with one-of-a-kind shops, the indie emporiums here hawk everything from snakeskin cowboy boots to a plethora of anti-Dubya memorabilia.

December 02, 2006