FREDERICKSBURG , smack in the middle of the Hill Country, might at first glance look like a pastiche of a German village, overrun by Biergartens and gingerbread storefronts. In fact it's still pretty much the town founded by six hundred enterprising Germans in 1846. They managed to make - and, uniquely, keep - treaties with the local Comanche, and their community, based on hard work and perseverance, survived through epidemics and civil war.

At the weekend, crowds of day-trippers from San Antonio and Austin visit Main Street's galleries, craft shops, antique stores and numerous fancy tearooms. Several original structures make up the Pioneer Museum at 309 W Main St, including a church and a store (Mon-Sat 10am-4pm, Sun 1-5pm; ; free). The National Museum of the Pacific War , 340 E Main St, incorporates the Nimitz Steamboat Hotel with its looming tower that really does look like a steamboat, and features a peace garden and an historical trail that leads past aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery (daily 10am-5pm; ; $5). Look out also for the quirky limestone and pink-granite Bank of Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg

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