After seven days of riding, it's time for a day off and where better to do that than St. Augustine, the oldest settlement in America. The Spanish were here 50 years before the Virginia settlement. The town itself is small, about 10,000 so it is easy to walk around. It has the requisite pedestrian mall with the usual stores plus some real high end stuff. The old city has small streets with many of the original buildings still existent or reconstructed. It's easy to get a feeling of what it was like 500 years ago. The center of the old city is the fort. It was built out of a local resource made of shells that was used after the original wooden fort had been set afire. Both the French and the English attacked the Spanish to try and obtain Florida. The "coquina" that they used for the walls repelled the cannonballs and made the force impregnable. The fort had the usual musket displays and good talks by the guides.
The modern city is centered on Flagler College. This is on the site of the Flagler Hotel. Henry Flagler was a partner of John D. Rockefeller. With his fortune, he built a phenomenal hotel which he used to create the "Newport of the South." Only the best people stayed there. It is now the home of the college that bears his name. I don't know what it is known for but I did met a mother whose son came to the college so that he could surf!
I found a good used book store to replenish my supply. Sorry, no Kindle!
Pictures from the town square
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