RED TRAIN TOURS

With Red Train Tour tickets in hand Janice and Mazie took the full ninety minute tour around the city. Choosing the sights they would see was a daunting task. “I am amazed by it all,” Janice said. “Just think what we’ve seen in the last hour and half. Five hundred years of Spanish and English. All that old and new. Right next to each other a Spanish Villa and a Victorian house. What do we do first?”

“Anything but Believe It Or Not,” Mazie said

“Agreed. How about Villa Zarayda?”

The Villa Zarayda, built as a winter home by Boston millionaire, Franklin W. Smith,  a 1/10 size replica Alhambra Palace in Granada Spain it oozed of wealth and elegance. End on end furniture, art work, rugs, and household articles collected from all over the world.

“My favorite,” Janice said as tired feet and growling stomachs forced and end to the tour, “was the cat rug. Do you believe it was woven from only cat hair and is the oldest rug in the whole world?”

“Does it matter? Not as much, I think, as the superstition that if you walk on it you will die.”

Janice laughed. “Of course if you walk on it you will die. We all die- sooner or later. You notice they do not tell you how soon after you step on it you will die.”

“But the day they finished it they found a dead cat.”

“Cats die too, Mazie.” Janice said as they entered a cafe for a late lunch

Jewellee Cardwell

LikeShow more reactions

CommentShare

Comments

Write a comment...

Press Enter to post.

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

It was an easy morning, perfect in every way except for a second admission charge. But as it turned out well worth it.

The Fountain of Youth exhibit laid out the history of Spanish explorers to the area and offered what they claimed was water from the same spring the Spanish explorers found when they arrived in 1513. It was indeed tasty containing what they claim is at least thirty minerals. It is that plethora of minerals which cures and prevents illness and lengthens life spans.

Exiting the exhibit Mazie said, “I think that water is in fact magic. I feel terrific. A lot better than yesterday.”

Janice laughed, “I suspect that might have more to do with not hiking all over the site than the water.”

“Maybe. Then we should feel super terrific after sitting on our behinds for an hour. Ready for the planetarium?”

The room darkened. The show began with explanations of sailing methods in 1513. Stars, quadrant and astrolabe. The ceiling of theater lit up with stars as they appeared on April 2, 1513. The explanations continued.

“Wow,” Mazie said as they reoriented their eyes to the sunshine. “Amazing. Absolutely amazing. But I think there might something in that water.”

.