The nation's oldest city

After arriving in St. Augustine late yesterday, we only had today to explore the city. The history of the city dates back to 1565 when it was founded by a Spanish admiral named Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on August 28.

Our day at this historic site started with a 'light' breakfast at Denny's. Then we headed to the Historic District - first stop: Castillo de San Marcos. We visited this Spanish-built fort in tropical heat. Afterward, a change of clothes was necessary as we were sweating more than we could drink. After this experience, it was clear that further sightseeing activities in the city should not be done on foot. Luckily, I was not alone in this assessment and received full agreement from the travel group.

After a brief family meeting, we booked a sightseeing tour with the city trolley. During the 90-minute tour, we saw all the interesting places in the city, narrated by a quite funny driver.

Of course, the history of St. Augustine is relatively modest compared to the cities in Europe, but by no means uninteresting. St. Augustine is home to one of the tallest church crosses in the world. If it were up to the driver, it would even be the tallest cross in the world (the Americans don't mess around with size). A quick look on the internet confirmed my suspicion, though. The stated 63.4 meters only rank seventh... still impressive. By the way, JFK visited the city four days before the assassination in Dallas, and Dr. Martin Luther King spent a night in the local jail in 1965 for attempting to eat at a local restaurant without permission. Besides the 'Colonial Quarter,' there are plenty of other buildings worth seeing that we saw during the city tour.

After the tour, we still had time for a round of mini-golf, which came at a bargain price with the city tour.

We ended our stay in St. Augustine with (unfortunately, once again) an average dinner at above-average prices. One can't shake off the thought that many establishments try to compensate for the lack of quality with overly high prices. A phenomenon that can be found in tourist hotspots all over the world. Well, at least there's free refill for the kids' drinks here...

At around 8 pm, we headed towards Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral, which are just around the corner and will be our next destinations.

In this spirit: Houston, we...