A short drive south from Hilton Head is Savannah, one of the oldest city in the USA, tainted as a quaint and classically colonial town with vast quantities of character and a quintessentially British stemming from its roots as a British colony establishment is in early 1700’s.
We arrive with a plan to spend the full day stomping around soaking up the sights in the Historic District but to stay just out of town in a motel complex. The first thing we do is park up at the visitors center, pick up a map and head for The Wilkes House, something which lonely planet and Vic both mentioned to us so we thought this must been seen. We arrive and as detailed in the guide book we see the queue from the end of the street, not to be put off we join the queue. The Wilkes House is a very old home style restaurant which serves food daily and is very well known and rated. We queue for an hour before getting to the front. We walk in not knowing what to expect and are seated by big friendly black women speaking in a thick southern tone. The tables seat about 10 people, once filled the feast begins. They bring out more food than you can comprehend from chicken, beef stew, BBQ pork, several types of veg and squash, mac’n’cheese, mash potatoes, savannah rice, gravy and cornbread. We all passed the food around and loaded up our plates taking more than all could eat and still having huge amounts left over. We sat next to and got talking to a couple from Alabama who were amased when we told them we are from England. We spoke about sport, rugby and food. We felt like they had never met a foreigner before with some of the things they were saying, also we felt like like we had properly travelled more of the states than they had already :-). Either way they were very pleasant and inquisitive and hope we portrayed a good view of the English.
After a delicious dinner we head out around the town. We do a lap down through the old town seeing some of the classical colonial architecture and buildings. Through a cemetery and park where a lone jazz trumpet is playing in front of a water fountain, this felt very authentic and charming. We carry on stopping to take in the sights and locals before landing at a large cathedral. The cathedral was good but unfortunately didn't have the same charm or impact as some of the European gothic style cathedrals that we have seen so much of when visiting European cities.
We finish the day down on the waterfront picking up a few presents for people and visiting a massive candy shop and picking up some dessert for later on. We have only been in the town about 5 hours but have seen enough of it for its charm to rub off on us. We head back to the car and set off to find out motel for the evening. We drive about 10 miles out of town and onto a large hotel complex which seem to be prevalent on the interstates, housing several common hotel chains as well as gas stations and several chain restaurants. We check in and head the ‘cracker barrel’ for some food. A home style menu we get meat and two veg style, ‘obviously some of the veg is coated in butter as without it it would be too healthy & the American’s wouldn’t eat it!
The next day we awoke to another rubbish breakfast, surprisingly the breakfasts we have encountered have not been all that great but the other food we have eaten is usually good. Today we drive to Saint Augustine, another town further south which has similar properties to Savannah however Spanish in origin.
The drive isn't too bad and we arrive late morning ready for another full day's exploring. The day is wet and overcast but the temperatures are high and it's feeling very humid. We park up again at the visitors centre, get a map and head out around town. Our first stop is lunch, heading to ‘Hot Shot Cafe’ for a tasty sandwich and sauteed potatoes. We walk through the pedestrianised square past all the old buildings and universities which are all decorated in Spanish flags. Luckily everywhere is quiet due to the time of year and maybe the weather so is feels like we have the town to ourselves. We head to St Augustine Distillery after reading good reviews online. We luckily arrived 10 minutes before a tour starts so familiarize ourselves in the museum. They make Gin, Vodka and Bourbon using locally farmed produce in small quantities focusing on quality not quantity. Our guide was an engaging and knowledgeable young lady who talked in detail about the brew processes. The best bit came at the end when we got to try a gin and tonic and a moscow mule style drink with the distilleries vodka. Both were delicious and lubricated us up enough to purchase some more small gifts in the shop at the end. It was great fun and it's all free with the idea that after a drink and informative tour you purchase something from the shop which we did.
We head down from the distillery through the old town and headed for a large cathedral. The cathedral was the first and oldest cathedral in the USA, founded and built in the late 1600’s after the british burnt the original saint augustine to the ground which was founded in the late 1500’s. Again the cathedral was very well kept and nice to visit but both of us prefer the gothic style of European cathedrals.
The heavens opened and we took shelter in a nearby arcade. Eventually we purchase ponchos and carry on, sods law the rain soon ending once we leave and never returns that day. The few stops are to visit an old greek orthodox shrine and to head to a fort.
On the way out of town we stop at a lighthouse which turned out to be one of the best bits of saint augustine. For $10 p/p you get to go around the keeper's house, visit an historic ship building yard where they re-build boats using handtools and also head up all 219 steps to the top for great views of the area. A great way to finish off the afternoon.
Just a few miles down the road we check in a local hotel, heading for top rated local italian restaurant. Both our dishes tasting great with fresh ingredients and good portions. We settled down to a good night's sleep before moving on down to Daytona beach for a fleeting visit enroute to the keys.
The morning of checkout we set off with one planned stop at Matanza fort, purposely not properly visiting the fort in Saint Augustine the day before hoping for a better trip to the further out and off the beaten track fort we had read about, we were not disappointed. The fort is situated on a island you need to get a boat to and in a large conservation area. We saw some great bird life and again felt like it was all ours with a total of only 6 people on the boat over and the guide giving us a tour and history lesson as we went around. The fort itself was small and well maintained never having actually seen battle only having to fire warning shots several times in its history. We got to go to the top for good views of the swap area it sits on, having to squeeze through a small hole and climb a ladder to the top, I could barely fit through it! After the fort we walked on a wildlife trail spotting which looked like a baby raccoon and some other curious bits. All this was free so we left a small donation for the upkeep of the fort and park.
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