Share
Previous Page
Greater New Braunfels Travel Articles
- Texas' Oldest Operating Dance Hall Nurtures Up-and-Coming Musicians
- Totally tube-ular fun in Old World Texas
Saturday July 10, 2004
By Cindy Loose, The Washington Post
"New Braunfels brings nods of recognition from many across nation; Schlitterbahn is the reason"
Deep in the heart of landlocked Texas Hill Country, I ride a major wave. For about 30 seconds, before wiping out and being whipsawed head over heels into a churning maelstrom, I briefly understand the glorious rush of surfing.
I also, at the insistence of my 11-year-old, confront my fear of heights and plunge headfirst down a three-story chute at Schlitterbahn Waterpark Resort. That gives me the courage to allow myself to be shot out of the Master Blaster by water jets that catapult our rubber raft six stories into the air, then drop us like a barrel over Niagara Falls.
German immigrants settled New Braunfels and the neighboring town of Gruene in the 1800s. Much of what they built remains, including homes of old German fechwerk — half-timber, half-masonry. The spring-fed Comal River meanders through New Braunfels, and lazing on the river on a summer's day is a major pastime. Those with an adventurous streak that hasn't been fully satiated at the water park head to Gruene, where the rushing Guadalupe River provides white-water adventure.
In the early 1970s, Bob and Billye Henry purchased a small hotel on the Comal River in New Braunfels. In 1979, they built a 60-foot structure intended to look like the Solms Castle in Braunfels, Germany — home of the original settlers. They attached to the sides of their faux castle four slides, pumped in water from the river and called their family-made creation Schlitterbahn ("slippery road" in German).
ADVERTISEMENT
