Austin

Austin is the capital of Texas, on the Colorado River, which widens into Lady Bird Lake as it crosses downtown. The Austin Food & Wine Festival is held at Auditorium Shores, a park on the south bank of the lake, facing the downtown skyline.

Practical notes

• Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is south-east of downtown.
• Auditorium Shores is across the river from downtown hotels, a walk over one of the bridges.

Austin outdoors, by the lake

Zilker Metropolitan Park, at Barton Creek and Lady Bird Lake, is Austin’s oldest metropolitan park: more than 350 acres (about 140 hectares) of public land holding Barton Springs Pool, the Zilker Botanical Garden and the Austin Nature and Science Center, says the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

• Barton Springs Pool covers three acres and is fed by underground springs at a steady 68 to 70 °F (20 to 21 °C), which the city calls ideal for year-round swimming.

Bats over Congress Avenue in Austin

Visit Austin, the city’s tourism office, explains that a 1980 renovation turned the Congress Avenue Bridge into an ideal roost for migrating Mexican free-tailed bats. From late March into early autumn, North America’s largest urban bat population lives under the bridge and flies out around sunset: a few bats first, then thousands once the sun is down. The city has adopted them as neighbours who take care of its insects.