It's coming to an end

Last stop on our trip is St. Augustine, Fl. Normally we had planed going straight home from Nashville. This little detour is a prolonging of the beginning of the end. We had an overnight-er in Perry, GA. Park and sleep. Like I have mentioned before, GA was a forest of billboards along the highway. Not pretty.

White man's littering along the highway!

Sunday (5/25) we did the touristy thing and hopped on the Trolly Tour. Old Town was packed with people, enjoying the weather and the holiday weekend. St. Augustine, founded in 1565 and being the oldest town in the United States, is more like what we associate with being historic. The Spanish influence is undeniable and very charming. Flagler did an awesome job with building the most impressive structures like the former hotel "Ponce de Leon" which now is a college.

Flagler College

The former Hotel Alcazar is equally impressive and houses a museum. One can step back in time and admire the Villa Zorayda (also a Museum) The architecture is a 1/10th scale replica of a portion of the Alhambra Palace in Granada/Spain.

Villa Zorayda

Memorial Presbyterian Church

 Flagler had this Church build in 1889 as a memorial to his daughter. It had been build in one year in order to be ready for her one-year-anniversary. Can you imagine how many people worked on it? Flagler had also build another jail. 1 1/2 miles outside of town, as to not to disrupt the tranquility of this expensive hotels and their clientele. A night at the Ponce de Leon Hotel was to be had for $30 a night (that's in 1897 $). But you could not just stay there for a night. It had to be booked for the whole winter season.

The jail tour was very interesting.

And of course Rupert got picked to demonstrate "The Bird Cage" After being put into it the cage would be hoisted up a tree for all people to see.

After all this walking and taking it all in we rested in a little Spanish restaurant on the balcony. Watching people go by with their goody-bags and watching a guy who gave himself a "hair-burn".

He would twist some hair and when he felt it was too long, he would just burn it off with his cigaret.

Ta-ta