We left the campground on Anastasia Island this morning about 10:30 and drove over to St. Augustine. We parked the car at the Old Town Trolley lot on N. Ponce de Leon Blvd. We had bought tickets for the Trolley for 2 days and yesterday we rode it around St. Augustine checking out the different sights. Today we will be getting off of the trolley to visit some of the sights that we saw yesterday. We got our tickets for today and it wasn't too long before the next trolley picked us up.
We had planned our day so that we would arrive at the stop nearest Meehan's Irish Pub so we could have lunch there. Mike ordered the Reuben Roll (corned beef and sauerkraut in a spring roll wrapper, deep fried with Kerrygold cheese sauce & Thousand Island). I ordered the Reuben sandwich (corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese on marbled rye). It would have been nice to have a couple of beers with lunch, but since we had a lot of walking to do this afternoon we opted to have sweet tea. We had both been looking forward to eating at Meehan's and we weren't disappointed - I could go again!
Then we walked across the street from Meehan's to go visit the Castillo de San Marcos.
We spotted this RV from Europe in the parking lot and had to take a photo or two.
The entrance fee for Castillo de San Marcos is $15 for adults, but with our Senior Passes it was free. The Castillo de San Marcos is the only 17th century military construction in existence and is the oldest masonry fortress in the U.S. The building of the Castillo was started in 1672 and completed by 1695. It is built of coquina which is a type of limestone made from seashell fragments that solidified over time.
We explored the different exhibits in the lower part of the Castillo; soldiers' quarters,
a storeroom,
and British soldiers' quarters where 2 men shared
We got a up earlier than usual and after walking Tinker, feeding him and having our coffee, we drove into St. Augustine to go on the Trolley Tour. We crossed the Bridge of Lions a little after 9:00.
We parked at the parking garage at the Visitor Information Center for $3 for the day - that was the discounted price with our trolley tickets. Then we walked across the street to the Trolley Welcome Center in time for the 9:30 trolley.
We passed by Flagler College where we saw a fence made from chains and spiked balls,
the Villa Zorayda Museum in a house built by the Boston Millionaire Franklin W. Smith in 1883 and was inspired by the 12th-century Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.
Then by the Lightner Museum in what was the Hotel Alcazar built by Henry Flagler in 1888 in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style,
the St. Augustine Distillery that is in the FP&L Ice Plant building built in 1907. The plant was the first in
