Touring St. Augustine

 We decided to ride the Hop on Hop off tour tram today so we could get an overview of the city.  First we rode the entire loop and heard the history of the city from very knowledgeable tram drivers.  They told us so much it made my head spin.  Basically, the first European to set foot on Florida was Juan Ponce de Leon.  He was looking for the fountain of youth and claimed he discovered it in Florida.  He returned to Spain and then a man named Menendez returned to Florida with the goal of claiming Florida for Spain.  He became the first governor of Florida.  Spain ruled Florida for 200 years before the Britain threw the Spanish out and Florida then became British land.  Most of the buildings we saw today were constructed in the late 1880's when Henry Flagler first came to St. Augustine and liked it so much that he began constructing hotels and even a railroad to bring tourists to the city.  He wanted it to become a tourist destination.  He accomplished that.  At the time he was the owner of Standard Oil and was the second richest man in the United States.

The Fountain of Youth is in this garden which costs $20 a piece to enter so I just took a picture of the garden entrance!

This is a Baptist Church built in the 1880's.  The unusual thing about this church is that the bell tower does not contain a bell.  Mr. Flagler built the church for the congregation with the request that there be no bell...bells make too much noise!

This round extension of the building contains Tiffany stained glass windows that are insured for over 150 million dollars.

Built as a hotel by Flagler but today it houses Flagler College.

Statue of Mr. Flagler in front of Flagler College.

 

Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Aviles Street - oldest street in city.

Original gates built by the British.

Oldest wooden schoolhouse.

Oldest house in the city.

This building contains a wax museum today and has never been painted.

St. George Street in the heart of the historic district of the city.

Some of the streets have the original brick roadway.

This is where we ate lunch.  It serves Cuban food.

My meal:  Boneless chicken, onions, green peppers, fresh garlic, mushrooms, diced potatoes, chorizo, splashed with a hearty red wine and served with yellow rice...delicious!

Carol's meal:  slices of pork roast, boliche, empanada de picadillo, plantanos, black beans, yuca, and yellow rice - also delicious.  He finished his meal with a cup of Cuban coffee.

Live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss line both sides of this street.

This mustang is made entirely from vintage 1950s and 60s chrome car bumpers.  It was created to celebrate the Denver Broncos' 1987 Super Bowl appearance.

This live oak is called "The Senator" and is 600 years old.  

Built by the Spanish to defend Florida.

This car was on display at the Welcome Center for the Hop on Hop off tours.  Carol liked it so he took this picture.

It was a very nice day.  There was some rain while we were eating lunch but otherwise no rain.  The temps were comfortable.  We enjoyed riding the tram and hearing the history of St. Augustine.  Even though we heard the complete story two times, these old heads cannot remember much of it except it was interesting!  There is so much to see and investigate and we barely scratched the surface.  We could visit here again.
Thankfully, I did figure out part of my problem with the I-cloud pictures.  I needed the pictures to be in Jpeg form and they were not.  I discovered that I could go into settings on my phone and change the format of my pictures.  Problem solved; however, I still have over 100 pictures in the other format that I need to figure out how to get them into Jpeg form.  That is a problem for another day.

Tomorrow we are going to drive part of US Route 1 (the one that started in Key West) along the coast.  It should be a relaxing day.