Day 4 - A day exploring St. Augustine, Florida (mileage 0)

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Being up early thanks to the ducks and the heat meant we got the chance to spend a full day exploring St.Augustine, probably the closest thing the USA has to a truly historic city that can trace its origins back to the 16th century.

From the entrance to the KOA we were able to pick up the shuttle from the Old Town Trolley Tours straight into the centre of town, thankfully saving the hassle of trying to park the beast somewhere in the middle of the narrow streets. Whilst waiting for the shuttle at the junction outside the camp, we watched a truck take the traffic lights too fast and deposit a leather three piece suite across the major junction. The guy inside just reversed back into the middle of the busy crossroads, chucked the suite back into the bed of his truck and drive off again like it happens all the time.

St. Augustine is a small city with a lot of narrow streets and alleys to explore. There are no high rise buildings and the architecture, largely built by Flagler as he expanded the railroads into Florida is amazing. At the heart of the city is a pedestrianised street full of old 100-200 year old properties that still retain their character.

We took the trolley tour, a 23 stop trip that lasts about an hour and a half around town to check as much out as possible. You can hop on and off as much as you want.

The old fort on the sea front is a must see with an amazing history as it transferred between Spanish, English and US ownership over the years. Most interesting of all however was that the fort was being mapped on the day for Google Earth by a bloke traipsing round with what looked like a massive Dalek sticking out of his back pack. Being the big kid I am, I took the opportunity to be in as many of the pictures as possible, so in months to come Shas and I should appear inside and outside the fort in a number of different positions! Watch this space!

After the fort came the 'fountain of youth' archeological gardens....don't bother. Built around a an old spring with mythical healing powers, this area is now a collection of bizarre buildings housing strange, cobbled together bits of local history from native Indian village recreations to a collection of old rusty anchors. Really little to see here and not worth the entrance money and after forcing Shas to drink 5 gallons from the fountain, i can confirm that bit doesn't work either ;-)

From there we did a tour of the old town jail, traditional wild west type affair, complete with actors wandering around inside and out. Stories of how the jail operated, the history of the local sheriff and the last hanging that took place were interesting but by now we were flagging!

After history and tourism overload we headed back into town for lunch at a fantastic columbian/tapas restaurant in George street called Columbia. Set in a beautiful building with many different dining tooms, the food and surroundings were superb and we would really have liked to go back for an evening meal as well, but the afternoons wine tasting took its toll!

After the obligatory trip to Del Sol (little bruv's company selling a fine range of colour changing merchandise around the world) we boarded the trolley for one last stop, wine tasting at the family run St Sebastien winery.

Now this was more our scene and after a short tour of the facility we got down to tasting 11-12 different types of white, red, fizzy, sherry and port all, produced locally. The host was excellent , knowledgable and very entertaining although there was a small suggestion that we probably weren't her first tasting group of the day ;-) Spending the afternoon necking wine meant we had totally lost track of time and missed the last trolley, so it was a wobbly walk back to the town centre befriending the other local winos as we went and then a 10 dollar cab ride back to the camp having had to miss out on the planned trip to the Alligator farm and zoo!

The evenings gourmet event was another al fresco barby of burgers with our new best friends...mr and mrs duck and the rest of the 40 strong duck family...who at the slightest hint of food appear from all over the place including the air! Several times Shas had to take cover in the RV as she became surrounded.

St Augustine is a great place to visit, probably worth a couple of days but we're looking forward to getting down the coast to the Kennedy Space Centre tomorrow.

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