A morning in St Augustine

We found the streets of St Augustine were much quieter first thing on Monday morning once the weekenders were gone. In case you're wondering, we had the stayed the night at the Days Inn, which I do recommend.

First stop was breakfast at the Spanish Bakery. This was so satisfying, we had another breakfast at The Bunnery about 10 minutes later.

The Spanish Bakery has been in business for nearly 30 years. This can only be down to its prime location, judging by its meagre selection of forlorn meat pies, sausage rolls, pastries and cookies served up in a dark shed.

My cinnamon swirl had heavy lumps of burnt sugar welded to a crusty, dry roll. At that time of morning it was popular with the road cleaning crew and I half-wondered if they had emptied their sweepings onto the counter.

Further down the street we found a fun diner called The Bunnery which had lots of local photos on the walls and a fine selection of pastries and coffee.

I was very happy with the decaff cappucino, key lime pie and cheesecake brownie.

St Augustine was lovely in the cool morning air and raking light.

We ventured along some back streets for a peek at the old residences here.

The oldest building in town though is the Castilo de San Marcos, a massive Spanish fortress with stone walls 14-feet thick and 35-feet high.

A proper 'bastion' it has a square courtyard with diamond points at each corner, sat within a ditch and star-shaped walls. You can see this from above with my aerial shots thanks to my helicopter ride which you will find below in an older post.

With foundations dating back to 1672, it is the oldest stone fortress on the continent. Inside you will find the de rigueur introductory film and a series of plain rooms left undecorated except for centuries-old graffiti.

A soldier's life was hard and the building was a remote outpost...so no, there is not much to look at inside!

On top of the ramparts there is quite a view over the town and harbour...

plus a line of magnificent old cannon.

If only I had kept my cinnamon bun from the Spanish Bakery, it would have made a fine cannonball!