St Augustine Florida

For years Marge and I have thought that we want to travel down the road looking at new and interesting things without driving 600 miles plus everyday. We have always had to be somewhere at a certain time and hurried to get there. This last year we have had more freedom to drive, in this case just 80- 100 miles down the road to see some of the sights and have the time to explore new things. The city of St Augustine was one of those new stops.

Below is a picture of the old city gates located just outside the fort at St Augustine. This was the entrance to the settlement with the fort sitting on the water protecting the surrounding area. We did not get a chance to visit the Ponce De Leon fountain of youth which was nearby but did wander the fort which is really well preserved for being some 400 years old. The other nice thing was that our "Golden Age Pass" got us in for free.

The corners on the fort had sentry towers that are typical of all the Spanish Forts of the day although it would seem limited as to their use. Inside not much room and beyond being a lookout not much to them at all

There was a moat below all the walls of the fort although it is not flooded now. As you can see ...there isn't much room in the sentry towers

The town outside the fort had limited fortifications that were essentially like stockades but limited as compared to the fort. The city was surrounded by this wall at the time.

Marge trying to find her way out of fort

This picture is of the old town shopping area which in now turist heaven. Note how narrow the streets are and although this is not really T-Shirt heaven there are crowds of people with a lot of shops to accomodate them.

This is Magnolia street just outside the Fountain of Youth and neat with the overhanging trees.

Ah! Finally....Brick! and Paving Brick to boot! Most of the back streets have to some degree real brick pavers and it was fun to see the different manufacturers now long gone.

Hopefully, this post will survive being uploaded and published. I still am having problems with blogger and particularly working with pictures. I have found some ways around and hopefully they will work