Friday, February 28, 2014

St. Augustine

Today we visited St. Augustine, FL; the oldest city in the continental US.




Our first stop was Castillo de San Marcos.






We had the opportunity to experience a weapons demonstration.




























These were the views from the watchtower above.




















This was the room on the other side of the small door above.  It was originally used to store gunpowder but proved to be too damp.  Later, it was used to store garbage and once full the room was sealed.  When it was finally opened small animal bones were discovered leading to rumors of the place being haunted.




















Old Spanish Trail mile marker zero.


We visited the Huguenot Cemetery next and spotted this little chameleon peeking out from a tomb.




Next we traveled across the Matanzas River to visit Fort Matanzas.

There is normally a free ferry that will take you across to the fort but it was closed for training that day.












While on the other side of the river we stopped by the St. Augustine Lighthouse











We crossed back over and rode through the old city on our motorbike taking in some of the sites.

This was the old drugstore.


We drove through the campus of Flagler College, originally the Ponce de León Hotel .






Then we visited the oldest house.




Afterwards we walked around the city a bit along St. George St.