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Published: July 26th 2010
Last Saturday, Rachel and I spent the day lounging at our motel just outside Savannah in Southern Georgia, after a busy few days on the Civil Rights trail. This relaxing day included driving a couple of hours from Macon to Savannah and getting the oil in our car changed so we weren't being totally lazy. I managed to catch the Spurs vs San Jose friendly on ESPN in the hotel, but after the most boring 0-0 draw I have seen, I wished I hadn't. It also worried me how excited the American commentators got about Gareth Bale, and how they described him as a stud numerous times!
We drove the short distance into the centre of Savannah, which was a very charming city. After discovering that both the tram and horse and cart tours were a complete rip off, we decided to do our own driving tour of the city, including a lovely (if not a little bone jarring) drive along the cobbled street on the riverfront. The city reminded us of two places; it had similar architecture in some areas to the French Quarter in New Orleans, little shaded squares and parks like Kensington in London and also a
cute little city market which didn't remind us of anywhere! Savannah is a place that, with a less tight schedule or a shorter overall trip, we could have really explored. We only scratched the surface with our mini driving tour, so my description of the place probably doesn't do it any justice. Savannah is described by most guide books and review sites as a grand historic city with a lot of character, and although we saw some of this, we didn't get to see as much as we wanted. A week would have been ideal, but we didn't have that amount of time, so half a day had to do!
The rest of the day was spent driving south through Georgia, passing some interesting places on the way. A small town called Midway had a lovely whitewashed church where earlier in the 20th century, black churchgoers were made to sit in a separate section. We also stopped at a roadside stall where they were selling Georgia peaches (something I had wanted since we arrived in Georgia) and were disappointed to find them all bruised and horrible as well as the man running the stall being a right miserable git!
Further along that road we drove the four mile loop through Harris Neck Wildlife Reserve, which was home to a lot of huge live oaks, draped with the very strange Spanish Moss plant, which gives everything a really haunted and spooky look. We wanted to visit a very Welsh sounding Howfyl Broadfield Plantation but it wasn't open on a Sunday, so we missed out on that. Our final stop before we reached the nights' accomodation were two islands, St Simons Island and Sea Island. St Simons Island, had a nice little beach and some views out into the Atlantic and a little collection of expensive, boutique hotels and shops. Sea Island was very exclusive, so exclusive in fact that we couldn't get onto the island properly because we didn't live there or weren't staying there! It looked very nice from afar though!
We travelled another half an hour south until we were three miles from the Georgia Florida stateline in a town called Kingsland. After checking in, using another of our discount vouchers, and unpacking the car to get a pile of laundry on, we discovered that the cold tap didn't work, the tv remote control didn't work, the
telephone didn't work and the wifi didn't work! A swift room change followed and we had a room that worked!
We drove the short distance into the Sunshine State on Monday morning and after an hour or so of unremarkable highway, we arrived at the beautiful coastal town of St. Augustine. This place is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the United States and was founded in 1565 by a Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon (brilliant name). After spending 5 minutes in the visitor centre we saw that there was plenty to see and do and that it would keep us busy for a couple of days before we were due to be in Orlando. Rather than spend the $25 each for the city trolley tour, we took one of the tour maps and decided to follow it ourselves.
Our first stop (after the Visitors Centre) was the Shrine to Our Lady of Leche and Mission of Nombre de Dios. It was a very serene and peaceful area right on the coastline and featured a small chapel, a grave to honour the unknown victims of abortions, and a 200ft steel cross which commemorates when
in 1565 Pedro Menedez de Aviles placed a small wooden cross in Florida’s soil as he landed ashore and founded the Mission of Nombre de Dios.
We decided against going into the next two places we stopped at. The first being an archaelogical park containing a supposed fountain of youth. At $10 each, we decided we were youthful enough and had plenty more to do in the town so carried on. Although, later that day, looking in the mirror and seeing my ever increasing number of grey hairs, maybe a pint or two of the water from the fountain may have been a good idea! The 2nd was the Old Jail. We had a quick nosey round the entrance, but it seemed to be very gimmicky and fake, so we chose to press on.
We crossed the river over the Lions Bridge to take a look at the St Augustine Lighthouse. It was very different to the Biloxi lighthouse we encountered earlier in our trip and after a few photos we were on our way again. Before you ask, no Rachel and I haven't become lighthouse spotters, it just happens that two of the towns we have visited
in the last couple of weeks have had prominent and famous lighthouses!
Before retiring to our motel, we made a visit to the oldest house in St Augustine (it did look quite a lot like most of the other houses, as the whole city was very old!) and when in the gift shop came across a disturbing couple of books that made us think that the Lee-Cain axis of power was being stalked by the author Euginia Price! Just look at the photos and you will see what we mean! (It makes more sense if you know Rach's mum is Maria and mine is Margaret.)
We thought that we would take a nice walk through the Spanish quarter and find a quaint little restaurant to have a meal in. Rachel even put a nice little dress on for the occasion. As you can probably tell from my tone, it didn't go to plan! We were walking down the main street at 9pm and could we find a restaurant that was still serving food!? No we couldn't! At about 10.15pm, we decided to cut our losses and dive into the little fast food pizzeria that was still open and
have our 'meal' in there! All was not lost however, as they had possibly the greatest pizza creation I have ever tasted, Lasagne Pizza! Delicious!
The following morning (Tuesday), we finished our time in St Augustine with a visit to the Castillo De San Marco. This is a star shaped fort built to protect the town from invaders back in 1672. It was built by the Spanish to protect their interests in La Florida, as it was called at the time. We had a look round and looked out at some great views from on top of the fort, as well as looking in the rooms within the forts including reconstructed sleeping quarters and a chapel. It was the hottest day for a while, and we were feeling the heat as we departed St Augustine and drove the hour and a half to Orlando. I'll tell you all about our fun in Orlando in the next blog, which will be titled Harry Potter and the Quest for the Elusive Bikini!
We are now flying to Jamaica on Tuesday evening, so instead of a few days in Miami, we are getting an extra six days in the Carribean. We
can't wait to unpack and relax and not have to change motel every night! Luckily, the airline have let us change flight for no charge. So the Orlando blog will be written from a sunlounger in the Carribean! Heaven.
Until next time....
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I lov e rach the cannonball...made me chuckle!