Last Thursday, …

August 22nd, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary in Gruene. We stayed at the Gruene Mansion Inn, …

Gruene Mansion Inn B&B

… had a fine supper at the Gristmill Restaurant …

Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar

… and after that went to the Gruene Hall …

Gruene Hall & Water Tower

… for dancing and listening to the music.

Gruene, today a suburb of New Braunfels, was founded in 1872 by Henry D. Gruene [1850 – 1920], a son of German immigrants who had come to Texas in the course of the emigration movement sponsored by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels in the middle of the 19th century, who bought about 6,000 acres of land on the high bank of the Guadalupe River about 3 miles north of New Braunfels to grow cotton there, and first erected a water-powered gristmill, later a cotton gin and also opened a mercantile store which served the outlying farms with all they needed. At first Gruene, conveniently located on the stage coach route from Austin to San Antonio, prospered, until, in the 1920s, first by the blight of the boll weevil which ruined cotton production and later by the economic crisis, the town went down, to only 75 inhabitants in 1930, and becoming a ghost town in the 1950s. But nowadays, mainly because of tourism, it’s vibrant and vivid community again, with a historic district with many of the old buildings restored and being used commercially again.

One of these buildings is the Gruene Family Home, which Henry D. Gruene built in Victorian style for himself and his family in 1872, and which today is run as the Gruene Mansion Inn B&B. That is where we had booked a room for us, “Das Fluss Haus # 13“, …

Gruene Mansion Inn: Das Fluss Haus # 13

… situated high above the Guadalupe River on the bluff with pretty views.

Das Fluss Haus # 13: View from the Porch over the Guadalupe River

The rocking-chairs on …

Rocking Chairs

… and the views from the porch …

(Another) View from the Porch

… were nothing to be enjoyed that much: it was simply too jot on the porch facing south.

We rather enjoyed our cool room with its A/C. The following gallery [as usual a click on any one of the pictures in the gallery opens a slide show, and within the slide show the pictures can be enlarged to full resolution] shows the interior:

Gruene Mansion Inn: Das Fluss Haus # 13

Gruene Mansion Inn: Das Fluss Haus # 13

Gruene Mansion Inn: Das Fluss Haus # 13

Gruene Mansion Inn: Das Fluss Haus # 13

Gruene Mansion Inn: Das Fluss Haus # 13

Due to the wall panelling in rather dark wood and the darkish wallpaper on the ceiling the room wasn’t too bright, but it did have a warm tone and we really enjoyed the somewhat dusky atmosphere with all that bright sunshine outside.

Later we went for a stroll through Gruene [more pictures of that in my “Picture Book Blog” and after that, as said above, had our anniversary dinner at the “Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar“, the former three story brick boiler room of the original Gruene Cotton Gin, the other wooden buildings having been destroyed by a fire in 1922. We enjoyed our tasty supper a lot and the portions were really “Texas size”: more than enough. For starters we had “Gruene Bros. ‘Best’ Wurst”, from Falls City, btw, our neighbouring town, a Texas Polish Wedding Sausage, with Gristmill BBQ sauce. It came with some very yummy aromatic mustard, too.

Yummy Appetizer

As can be seen, I washed the sausage down with a good Warsteiner Dunkel – served in a bottle and without a glass as (nearly) always in the USA.

Our entrees were grilled trout …

Grilled Trout

… for Mary and one of the specials, …

Specials Menu

… slow cooked Baby Back Ribs:

Baby Back Ribs

The sides were the same for each of us: mashed garlic potatoes and green beans. The latter, btw, were quite interestingly prepared: with ground Parmesan. Very yummy!

After our supper we went next door to the Gruene Hall …

Gruene Hall

… the oldest continually used danced hall in Texas. From the outside this building looks, as you can see, rather unimpressive, and the inside looks aren’t that grand either, but it has the inimitable “Texas-dance-hall” atmosphere:

Gruene Hall

After our dinner and a few steps on the dance floor we slept very well and the next morning, after a few pictures …

A Most Happy Couple

… on the premises of the Gruene Mansion Inn [more pictures to be found again in my “Picture Book Blog“] we had quite an excellent breakfast …

Quite a Selection for Breakfast

… in the dining-room …

The Dining-Room at the Gruene Mansion Inn B&B

… on the ground floor [the second floor has rooms for rent] of the main building …

Gruene Mansion Inn B&B

The building on the right hand side in the foreground of the picture is a tornado shelter, btw.

And then, unfortunately, it was time to pack our belongings and leave for home again. But we’ll certainly be back some time (soon)

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