The Oldest City in the U.S.– St. Augustine

St. Augustine is a city that has become something of a tourist trap, especially in its old downtown area.  While we were there, there was a biker convention with bikers from everywhere showing up which created a major parking problem.  You would hardly know it was the oldest city in the U.S. (1565– the Spanish showed up).

The honky tonk downtown was in full swing while we were there, featuring some decidedly non-Spanish food

And some reminders of a past better forgotten…

Fortunately, there is still a real Spanish restaurant in the heart of the old town, namely Columbia.

Can you say yummy tapas?

But what we mainly came to do was to see the famous old Catholic cathedral named for the very person for whom the whole city is named— St. Augustine.   Here’s a gold bust of the man himself in the cathedral….

Presumably this is a statue of Christ, and I say presumably because almost everything else in this cathedral is images including stained glass windows of Catholic saints and priests, which Protestant me found disturbing. Where was the Gospel in all this? We are not supposed to be worshipping merely human saints.

But there is a side chapel with a representation of the last supper…. and a few extra Catholic saints.

All in all, the trip to St. Augustine to see some things we hadn’t seen before was worthwhile.