Day 63 30/9 Thursday St Augustine History!

Heather and Paul decided to have a quiet day down at the beach today as Paul has a knee problem and didn’t want to walk too far. Luckily, out accommodation is only 365 steps from the beautiful, clean, wide, beach. Rob and I had decided we wanted to find out about the fascinating history of this area. We headed down to the magnificent Castillo San Marcos Fort. St Augustine was first settled by the Spanish in 1513 and the area “La Florida”. In 1565, 700 soldiers and colonists settled here. The first fort built here was made of wood and over a couple of hundred years was burnt down several times by the British, pirates etc. In 1756 it was decided by the Spanish to build the fort in masonry so it was less easily burnt down. This is the fort that we visited today. It is a national monument and in remarkable condition. Over the past 350 years it has been ruled by the Spanish, Great Britain, Spanish again and finally the US. We were able to walk all around the fort into different rooms and areas and thought that it was truly a great experience! From here we visited the old part of St Augustine where we saw magnificent churches and beautiful buildings, many very old. We also visit the site of another fort (Fort Mose) that was a fort that was set up and populated by African Americans (either freed or escaped slaves, Spanish and Native American Indians. The Spanish didn’t treat slaves the same way as the British/US and freed them. Returning back to our accommodation, we decided to head to a lovely beachside restaurant for dinner. An excellent way to finish the day.