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Published: June 11th 2010
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We set off from Titusville intending to stay overnight in Jacksonville, Florida. Oh well, the best laid plans and all that! Instead of taking the faster I95 we opted for the much slower coastal road, the A1A. That took us onto thin slivers of land called barrier islands which protect the mainland from storms. One famous town on a barrier is Daytona Beach where we stopped for a while. Sadly the sky was black at the time and the heavens opened so we didn't see it at its best. The beach was still packed though as the rain had only just started. A bit further up the coast we stopped off at Flagler Beach. The weather was much better but we weren't prepared to pay $1.50 each just to walk along the fishing pier. Instead we got a nice view from the footpath!!
Our journey towards Jacksonville took us through the town of St Augustine. When we got there we decided it looked worth a closer look so we found a cheap motel and checked in for the night. We ended up staying two nights. A little weary from the journey, we didn't make it much further than the
British Pub on the other side of the road. It was really nice in there and everyone was very friendly. It seemed everyone wanted to talk to us once they heard the British accents - even the ex-pat Brit who was in there with his American wife and the ex-pat British barmaid!!
The next day we walked across the Lions Bridge which normally has a couple of statues of lions standing guard over it, hence the name. They have been taken away during some serious maintenance work but presumably they will be back once it is complete. Everywhere in town we found reference to this guy Flagler. A quick check in Wikipedia shows you just who
William Morrison Flagler was and what a kind and generous fellow he was!
St Augustine is old. Who says America has no history?! There we found the oldest house in the oldest city in the USA. The Spanish first explored the region as early as 1513 and the city has found itself ruled by the Spanish, the British, the Spanish again, and finally America. It's rich history can be seen in the magnificent architecture, none more so than in the
Flagler College buildings. They are spectacular.
On our wanderings we heard that entry to the
Castillo, the old fort, was free. Now we rarely pass off a freebie and we were most impressed, especially with their costumed volunteers giving a demonstration of cannon firing. They had to do it all in Spanish as they were pretending to be Spanish soldiers. We think we both speak Spanish with better accents than that!
Talking of freebies, we visited the San Sebastian winery. The tour was free and not too long and boring. Then came the tasting. We actually got to try 8 different wines. Not bad eh! Shame we only really liked two of them. We even had to pour away some of the samples - what a waste!! It would appear that
muscadine wine is not to our taste.
More to our taste was the
Prince of Wales pub where we went for lunch. It was really nice with lots of memories from home. Military memorabilia was all over the place, including an RAF beret, but Russ was a little put off by the amount of Southampton Football Club bits and pieces! The spam fritters were delicious. Yes, you heard (read?) correctly, spam fritters. Not to
Trish's taste though, she went for the Beef and Guinness pie! Incidentally, the owners are looking for a buyer as they've run the place for 6 or 7 years now and want a new challenge. After lunch the heavens opened which put rather a dampener on the rest of our wanderings. Such a shame as it's a lovely place to amble around.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Sounds like you are having fun
I have enjoyed reading your blog. Most people who travel America from other countries go to LA, San Francisco, NYC and Las Vegas. It is great that you are seeing a bit more of what America has to offer. You really have not seen America unless you have seen small town America and I thank you for taking the time to do that. A fellow blogger D MJ Binkley