After a nice Breakfast at one of the local “Waffle House” Restaurants near Disney Springs, we drove via Tampa to our new destination – St. Pete Beach.
First and Foremost – We are no big fans of picture loaded museums.
There’s one exception. The Dali Museum in St. Pete. We have seen the old one during the 90s and have this on our bucket list – just to recapture the feeling and see what has changed over the years.
But first, we need to get to our Hotel – which is located on one of the finest beaches in Florida – St. Pete Beach. We had chosen the Beachcomber to stay for the next three nights to have Culture and Ocean.
The best of it, it has a nice Beach Front Dining – Jimmy B´s Beach Bar attached.
When you enter St. Pete Beach – you’ll see one of the most “Kitsch”-Hotels – from outside, I have ever seen (The Don Cesar) – and then turn right to the less expensive, but also “directly attached to the beach”-Hotels and Motels.
My daughter loves american style Doughnuts and we were lucky to find a Donut Shop just across the street from our Hotel Lobby.
It´s not that we don’t have Donut Shops in Germany, but it´s definitely a longer ride to visit one of those as many of our bakeries don’t have authentic stuff rather than our traditional bakery things.
Coming back to our Hotel: our room was a nice small room with an extra living room (enough place for a couch, fridge and an extra TV), two small beds and a not very spacious bathroom – but enough for two nights. Clean – and near the beach.
After first acclimatisation, we started to have a short walk along the beach and then entering the Hotel´s restaurant for something to eat.
We can highly recommend the Burgers and also the Beer battered shrimps. Cocktails and cold drinks are really great here!
Later on, when darkness rolled in from the sea, we had a little walk on the beach.
It was warm and we could listen to the waves roll in, putting our toes in the warm sand. Relaxing place.
Next day we wanted to get some culture.
If you don’t know Salvador Dali´s Art, you first need to know, it´s kind of special. Dali was one of the major surrealistic Artists of his time – beneath Miro and Picasso.
He was a master of a kind and did more than just painting pictures.
Dali was a brilliant Designer. Did you know that Dali designed the Chuppa Chups Logo? Now you know!
(If you have the opportunity, visit Dali´s Place in Spain and his wife’s castle “El Pubol”)
The last time, we visited “The Dali” was in 1998 and the Museum then resided in a refurbished Storage Hall half a mile down the road where it is now.
You can see Abraham Lincoln if you close your eyes to a certain extinct – just like you are looking into very very intense light – do you see Mr. Lincoln? We did!
Later on we took the Trolley Tour through St. Pete and this was really fun.
We understand that the average American Citizen is proud of his country and especially the surroundings older than 50 years. For us european guys it might be a little bizarre, as soon as the tour guide mentions that the church, we are seeing now is old.
My question: “What to you mean by ‘old’ ?” He counters: “I mean really old, really, really old! This church is from 1913!” – (Sorry folks, I need to disappoint my friends in the US – you can find churches in the old world – England, Ireland, France, Germany and other countries – that are more than thousand years old. This is old.)
Anyhow – we had fun and we learned at least something from this Tour: Where to find the next german Beergarden in St. Pete! –> hofbrauhausstpetersburg.com
I had a look on the Menu and it didn’t shock me too much.
Recommendation for my english speaking friends when entering this place:
If you are going for a German Weisswurst – you find it on the Bavarian Platter – (rather than grilling it – more authentic is to have it as a pair, served in bowl of – hot – bot not boiling – water with a german Weissbeer and a Pretzel as kind of Breakfast or Brunch. And you definitely need to have it before noon)
Nuernberg Rostbratwurst needs to be grilled – and that’s ok! Have it with hot mustard or better Horseraddish to eat authentic.
(We have not visited the Hofbrauhaus and our recommendation about bavarian style food is more a general one. If you want to have a try – enter at own risk!)
Next Stop: Ft. Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva