Sights in Austin
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Congress Ave Bridge
Every year up to 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats make their home upon a platform beneath the Congress Ave Bridge. It's become an Austin tradition to sit on the grassy banks and watch as the bats swarm out to feed on the local insect population. Capitol Cruises, behind the Hyatt Hotel, offers bat-watching cruises on Town Lake below the bridge.
Locals are proud of this, the largest urban bat colony in North America. The colony, which is made up entirely of female and young animals, is at its most active when swarming out for the nightly feed. Such is the bat-density that bat-radars have detected bat-columns up to 10,000 bat-feet (3,050m) high. In June, each female give…
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Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum
Wander along the hoof-marked ground of a cattle drive, look through a rough-hewn slave cabin or duck into a 1930s-era movie. High-tech interactive exhibits and fun theatrics characterize the superb (and superbly humongous) Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. While you're downtown, you should wander by Austin's own piece of living history:
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University of Texas Museums & Galleries
The University of Texas, if not quite in the Ivy League, is a rich and prestigious school boasting several impressive museums and galleries. The Lyndon Baines Johnson, Archer Huntington and Texas Memorial museums are particularly worthwhile.
The LBJ Library, named for the 36th President, is a highlight of any visit to Austin. It much propaganda, but also offers a candid look at the social and political climate of the 1960s.
Also on campus, the Texas Memorial Museum packs a huge art deco building with displays of Texas' natural and social history. Exhibits focus on geology, paleontology, anthropology and natural history. Don't miss the impressive pterodactyl skeleton.
The …
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Blanton Museum of Art
A big university with a big endowment is bound to have a big art collection, and now, finally, it has a suitable building to show it off properly. Ranking among the best university art collections in the USA, the Blanton showcases a variety of styles. It doesn’t go very in-depth into any of them, but then again you’re bound to find something of interest. Especially striking is the installment of Missao/Missoes [How to Build Cathedrals] – which involves 600,000 pennies, 800 communion wafers and 2000 cattle bones.
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University of Texas
Whatever you do, don’t call it ‘Texas University’ – them are fightin’ words, usually used derisively by Texas Agriculture & Mining students and alum to take their rivals down a notch. Sorry, A&M, but the main campus of the University of Texas is kind of a big deal. Established in 1883, UT (and no, don’t call it ‘TU, ’ either) has the largest enrollment in the state – about 50,000 students hailing not just from around Texas, but from all over the USA and more than 100 foreign countries.
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Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Library & Museum
History buffs aren’t the only ones who can find something of interest at the LBJ Library & Museum. There are some fascinating mementos from the 36th US president, including his presidential limo, a moon rock, and gifts from heads of state (‘Why, thank you Chiang Kai-shek, for this lovely Chinese tomb sculpture!’).
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Texas State Capitol
The 1888, stunning, pink-granite Texas State Capitol is really 15ft taller than the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
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Texas State Cemetery
Revitalized in the 1990s, the state’s official cemetery, Texas State Cemetery, is the final resting place of key figures from Texan history. Interred here are luminaries including Stephen F Austin, Miriam ‘Ma’ Ferguson (the state’s first female governor), writer James Michener and Lone Star State flag designer Joanna Troutman, along with thousands of soldiers who died in the Civil War, plus more than 100 leaders of the Republic of Texas who were exhumed from other sites and reburied here. Self-guided-tour brochures are usually available from the visitor center. The cemetery is just north of E 7th St.
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Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Anyone with an interest in Texas’ flora and fauna should make the 20-minute drive to the wonderful gardens of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, southwest of downtown Austin. The center, founded in 1982 with the assistance of Texas’ beloved former first lady, has a display garden featuring every type of wildflower and plant that grows in Texas, separated by geographical region, with an emphasis on Hill Country flora. The best time to come is in the spring (especially National Wildflower Week in May), but there’s something in bloom all year.
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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The fascinating Ransom Center is a major repository of historic manuscripts, photography, books, film, TV, music and more. Highlights include a complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible (one of only five in the USA) and what is thought to be the first photograph ever taken, from 1826. Check the website for special online-only exhibitions and the center’s busy events calendar of author readings, live music, lectures and more. All in all, this jewel of a place should be a must-see on anyone’s itinerary.
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Mexic-Arte Museum
This wonderful, eclectic downtown museum features works from Mexican and Mexican American artists in exhibitions that rotate every two months. The museum’s holdings include carved wooden masks, modern Latin American paintings, historic photographs and contemporary art. Don’t miss the back gallery where new and experimental talent is shown. The museum’s gift shop is another draw, with killer Mexican stuff that’s pricey if you’re heading south of the border but reasonable if you’re not.
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Zilker Botanical Garden
These lush gardens cover 31 acres on the south bank of the Colorado River, with displays including natural grottoes, a Japanese garden and a fragrant herb garden. You’ll also find some interesting historical artifacts sprinkled about the site – kind of like an outdoor architectural museum – including a 19th-century pioneer cabin, a cupola that once sat atop a local schoolhouse, and a footbridge moved from Congress Ave.
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Texas Memorial Museum
We all know how kids feel about dinosaurs, and this natural history museum is the perfect place for them to indulge their fascination. Look up to see the swooping skeleton of the Texas Pterosaur – one of the most famous dino finds ever. This impressively humongous Cretaceous-era flying reptile has a wingspan of 40ft and was recovered at Big Bend in 1971.
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Umlauf Sculpture Garden
If the weather’s just too perfect to be inside a climate-controlled building, stroll the open-air Umlauf Sculpture Garden, located near Zilker Park. Within the sculpture garden and the indoor museum, there are more than 130 works by 20th-century American sculptor Charles Umlauf, who was an art professor at UT for 40 years.
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Austin Nature & Science Center
In the northwestern area of Zilker Park, this center has exhibitions of native Texan mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and arthropods that have been injured and nursed back to health here. There are also outdoor nature trails lined with native plants, where you’ll see bats, butterflies and birds.
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Laguna Gloria
Check out the Austin Museum of Art’s original home at Laguna Gloria out on Lake Austin. The Italianate villa built in 1916 was the former home of Texas legend Clara Driscoll and still serves as a rotating exhibition space, plus the grounds are nice for a wander.
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Austin Museum of Art
This museum’s main downtown gallery has changing exhibitions as well as a small permanent collection of 20th-century paintings, sculpture, photographs, prints and drawings. The museum expects to build a more spacious downtown headquarters – eventually.
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Austin Children’s Museum
This downtown museum offers lots of interactive and educational fun. Kids can try their hands at running a ranch, ordering a meal at the Global Diner and hanging upside down beneath a bridge, just like the real Austin bats.
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Elisabet Ney Museum
A spirited German-born sculptor and trailblazer, Elisabet Ney made her home in Austin in the early 1880s, and her reconstructed studio is a serene little museum.
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Dr Pepper Museum
The Dr Pepper soft drink was invented by Waco pharmacist Charles C Alderton in 1885. This museum celebrates his creation.
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