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Published: March 3rd 2011
Basilica Cathedral
(or Cathedral Basilica?) in St Augustine(usual prelude - written on a Greyhound on 2 March going N from St Augustine to next stop Savannah, Georgia – at last leaving the warm clutches of Florida)
On a general note, better to write on the bus – otherwise I would have been up all night doing this – when in fact the more urgent chore (and it is in fact time rather consuming in itself) is planning the next day or so accommodation and location as close to the Greyhound as possible (rather than telling youse about what I did today etc). In the case of Savannah it is right across the street so this is better than ever thought possible! And my new buddy Brandon, met waiting at the St Augustine Greyhound “stop” (only really a sign on the rather large multi-storey carpark), can maybe park his golfclubs in my room pending his rather long layover connection.
Arrival in St Augustine was a bit worrisome – mainly cos I walked in the wrong direction N rather than S around the block of US1, wondering where my hotel was and why there were all these others way closer to the Hound stop. However after a very
Flagler College
taken evening Day 1 hot circuit (the laptop in my backpack makes it rather heavy) finally found the Monterey Inn – which was pretty close to the old Castillo (castle) Spanish fortifications – as advertised on the Google map, which was correct, unlike my directional orientation! (shoulda used the basic compass hanging on my backpack).
On the bus I must now relate the rather earlier conversation on the bus from 2 older guys behind me – if I was Harold Pinter on the Clapham Omnibus it could be almost transcribed – in this case it would have been worthy of a David Mamet script. I am finally out of Florida back to Cleveland after 14 yrs down here – and working 6 days per week 14 hr days washing dishes in a restaurant and the boss pushed me too far to work a 7th day. So I told him he could stick it. Florida is a police state the voice opined. The other not as colourful had that sort of New Joisey whine and was heading back to Atlantic City. The distances people travel on the Hound make my progress look like a snail – someone the other day was going from Florida
to Arizona! And largely being poor they cannot afford to stop but stay on the bus. And no curtains on these buses for night time travel, unlike Amtrak which at least has those.
Only one other person got off at St Augustine and was met – most Greyhound travellers could not afford to stop there as it is quite an expensive place to stay. There are some fancy old house B&Bs here but as it is the “Season” they tend to cost $200 and up at this time of year. The Monterey where I stayed was close to the Hound (when I finally got there) but on Booking.com was $85 a night – normally $150 or so? And was really only a glorified motor-hotel in the old sense and not that flash, although the bedspread was nice! But it also was very handy to the Old Town, which is the main reason why I decided to stay here 2 nights. It was settled by the Spanish in 1565 – after they first landed there ard 1515 or so. Almost all the street names in the old quarter are Spanish. It was finally sold to the English in 1815 or
the courtesy transport?
at the Casa Monica Hotel - a Model T Ford? so (not sure that is right now that I think about it after 1776 and all that but the English may have still “owned” Florida at that point) – the history of some of these places and the old Civil War etc alliances etc can be confusing for a foreigner.
As usual my impressions of St Augustine (named after the festival of St A, on which date the Spanish landed) are, well, impressionistic, what else. There are a number of those bus/trolley tours but as the walking distances around the old Quarter are relatively small the idea of paying $22 for a commentary usually does not grab me (plus I am tight). The pix will give you my general pictorial impressions so I will not narrate the history which is in the guidebook under the bus and I just wandered around anyway. The two biggest buildings in downtown are Flagler College – the next day it was clear it was a functioning college/university with lots of young people walking around etc. Henry Flagler was a major entrepreneur in the late 1800’s and he built what is now the very large building which now houses the Lightner Museum as a
cannon and bridge
Ponce de Leon bridge (new) and (old) defences major luxury hotel. At one point it was the absolute height of luxury and had the largest indoor swimming pool in the US. Unfortunately I missed the last entry at 4pm by a few mins (it closes at 5pm) so did not get to visit and did not feel like dashing up there this morning before the bus. A father/daughter pair I chatted to at brunch (for me) recommended it as they spent 2 hrs there – a lot of period decorative etc objects but also a shrunken head – the usual collectable memorabilia of a millionaire then! There is also a fairly impressive Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church – but the Catholic Basilica Cathedral of the Spanish is also rather impressive in a different way – Presbos don’t have altars for a start.
(backtracking) I had a lunch stop in Orlando on the way up to St Augustine for 1h15min, so having been there before (Orlando otherwise being a dump) walked up the road for a few mins to Fishes and Loaves for another fried fish and okra feed I thought – but it was closed Mondays. So I went to the Caribbean bakery further along in the lo-rent
shopping strip – where a young (Jamaican?) lady recognised my Australian accent and told me that they really did authentic Jamaican food there (first time for me so I would not know). I had a small serve of chicken curry which was nice, with rice and red beans and some steamed cabbage, a couple of bits of fried plantain and a rather doughy flat disc of something a bit like those African chewy fibre bulk things like foofoo (sp.?) in Kenya. And with a juice drink it was all $8.50. So I did not need much for dinner. Went to a B&B place which had a restaurant and had a pizzatta (US spelling?) of blue cheese and pear – lots of blue cheese – and a big salad. Decided I have been missing out on my greens so needed this to make up for it.
My full day in St Augustine involved a wander ard (see pix) the Flagler College, the Cathedral, the Flagler church then further down S in the old town to the Coastguard HQ, the adjacent solders’ cemetery and some fairly picturesque old houses etc. I had thought of going to see either the Kings Speech
or The Fighter at the local small cinema (only $6) at 7pm – but I decided to relax into my dinner at the French Bistro de Leon and not rush the chef’s seafood risotto. They had a set menu/formule of 3 courses for $22 French style which would have been good value. But I had a pear/blue cheese/walnut salad (those greens again) to start then the seafood risotto. This was much more seafood than risotto which is always good. A chunk of fish, 4 prawns and a scallop or two fried and sitting on top of a very creamy risotto – pretty damn fine. For dessert I had a very nice lavender and slivered almond tart. Never had lavender in a culinary context like that before – but hey I ate orchid petals in Key West so why not!
One thing about the weather – yesterday (after bush fires close by and about 28C on the way in) got quite windy and cool and required my light wool and jacket before I went out. I know I was sorta wishing for some cooler weather but that was really only to get some clothes out of bulging bag to make
it easier to close! So that was St Augustine – the oldest settled place in the US and basically pretty pleasant to simply wander around and just look. As my usual travels usually involve just wandering around the centre of whatever place it is, historic or otherwise, this was pretty par for the course but none the worse for it.
Postscript to opening para: and yes my new buddy Brandon did park his rather ungainly golfclubs in my Thunderbird Inn room (directly across from the Greyhound in Savannah) and then we went off to a bar beside the river (he had stayed here earlier with his (now ex-) girlfriend) and had a few beers and a couple of Kamikaze shots - with the result I ended up suddenly drunker than I have been for quite a while. He almost missed his bus - and could certainly have pulled the older woman in the bar we were in and he ended up chatting to (or in fact the barmaid) - but that is a story for another time......
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Huddo
non-member comment
Hearses and clubs.
Hi Mike, Beautiful photo's, real estate looked significantly pricey! Trust Brandon collected his clubs for the next "PGA tour stop" Love Huddo and girls.