We were very eager to begin our day and make our way to St. Augustine. Many people had mentioned this little town to us as a place we should try to spend some time. At 7:30 am we brought up the anchor, left Ft Matanzas and cruised the 16 miles to St. Augustine. We arrived at the St Augustine Municipal Marina at 10 am where we fueled up and replenished our water supply. By 11:15 am, we had made our passage through the Bridge of Lions and chosen our anchoring spot in front of Castillo de San Marcos, the fort built in the mid 1500’s to fortify the settlement.
Ponce de Leon, in 1513, was the first European to set foot on the North American continent. If you remember your grade school history, Columbus discovered the New World, but the westernmost point of his journey was in the islands of the Caribbean. Ponce de Leon claimed the territory for Spain and named it La Florida. It was in this marshy area that Ponce de Leon thought he had found the Fountain of Youth.
The first town in the United States, St Augustine, was founded by Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565. It has a vibrant tourist industry and celebrates its Spanish heritage. We signed up for the trolley tour which allows the visitors to hop on and off the trolley route for three days. Since it was already 3:30 in the afternoon, we opted to ride the complete 70-minute trolley tour to get our bearings and an overall feeling about where we would spend our time tomorrow. We saw magnificent architecture preserved in the many churches, old hotels and other buildings. We saw the 208-foot cross that was erected on the site of the first Catholic mass offered in North America and we admired Magnolia Avenue which is considered to be one of the ten most beautiful streets in the world by National Geographic Magazine. After our ride, we relaxed with a cocktail at an English pub off George Street.
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