Day 55
St. Augustine, Spanish America
Morning
Castillo de San Marcos and St. George Street
After 2 h of driving, the oldest city of European origin in the United States, founded by the Spanish in 1565. The Castillo de San Marcos (1672) is the oldest masonry fortress in the country: its walls of coquina, a limestone made of shells, absorbed cannonballs instead of cracking, which made it impregnable. Around it, St. George Street unrolls its pedestrian colonial houses.
Afternoon
Lightner Museum, Flagler College, cathedral basilica and Fort Matanzas
The magnate Henry Flagler built two grand hotels here in 1888: the Alcazar, now the Lightner Museum with its Gilded Age decorative art collections, and the Ponce de Leon, today Flagler College, whose dining hall holds 79 Tiffany stained glass windows. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine is home to the oldest Catholic parish in the country (1565). To the south, little Fort Matanzas is reached by a free ferry.
Evening
The historic San Marco district
An evening walk along San Marco Avenue and Matanzas Bay, under the street lamps and the oaks draped in Spanish moss.
Good to know
The Castillo de San Marcos charges admission ($15, valid 7 days) and is free for under-16s; cannon firing demonstrations at the weekend. Parking in the historic district is scarce: use the Historic Downtown Parking Facility. The hop-on hop-off tourist trolley saves taking the car out again.
