MIAMI - MIAMI It has taken the entire day to get to St. Petersburg and as daylight turns to dusk over the tangle of sailboat masts at the city marina, I know that my complicated route - by train, bus and on foot - is going to cost me some sightseeing.
By the time I get to the Columbia restaurant, four floors up at the end of The Pier, I have missed the view of the sun setting over the city's skyline.
But eating at Columbia is also on my checklist of things to do here, so, foot-weary, I take a seat at the bar, order mussels and chorizo from the tapas menu and enjoy the panoramic view of the skyline faintly illuminated against the night sky.
It is my first trip to St. Petersburg, and the first day of a five-day tour of Florida by train.
At a time of record high gas prices, my assignment is to see Florida without a car. The plan: Visit three cities - St. Petersburg, Jacksonville and Winter Park - that are new to me. I'll take the train between cities and do my sightseeing on foot, by boat, bus, trolley and, when absolutely necessary, by taxi.
Both my schedule and my budget are tight, but I'm not trying to see all there is to see in each place. Instead, I'll just hit the highlights and test how easy it is to get around.
I know from the outset that there are obstacles to overcome. The first is that I was born in Los Angeles, which means I'm genetically predisposed to drive. It's difficult for me to give up my car; put me on a train and I want to ask if I can steer for a while.
The others are logistical and crop up as I make reservations: Amtrak's bus transfer from Tampa to St. Petersburg isn't available for trains from South Florida. Most wings at Jacksonville's Museum of Contemporary Art will be closed while it changes exhibits the day I'm in town. And the only hotel in downtown Winter Park is booked, so I'll have to walk to one on the outskirts of town.
In fact, as my trip takes shape, I see that I'm going to be doing a lot more walking than I had planned on. I set aside the shoes that are merely comfortable and pack the ones designed for walking.
Already I have had one disappointment: I had hoped to visit the Panhandle, but Amtrak's Sunset Limited, which once ran from Jacksonville to California, hasn't been east of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina destroyed tracks and stations, and no other route serves that part of Florida.
But for me, riding the train also represents the romance of old-fashioned travel, when getting places took time - a sort of enforced leisure and genteel sightseeing that are precluded by cramped airplane seats, chronic flight delays and TSA security measures. I lost my enthusiasm for sleeping on trains after a night in a claustrophobia-inducing upper bunk on the Auto Train last year, but this itinerary involves only day trips and I am looking forward to quiet hours spent reading and watching scenery.
ST. PETERSBURG: Brilliant museums, but a lot of walking
The first leg of this trip is the most difficult. Amtrak's Silver Star will only get me as far as Tampa. Amtrak's connecting Trailways bus service to St. Pete will get me out of town when I move on to Jacksonville, but won't help on this leg - it departs before my train gets to Tampa.
I'll arrive on a Sunday. The local bus traversing the 25 miles between the two cities runs only on weekdays. A one-way cab ride runs about $60 - more than the cost of gas to drive from Miami! Finally a check of the Greyhound Web site lands me a ticket on a bus that will drop me just a mile from my hotel.
At 9:30 on a brisk Sunday morning at the end of January, I board the Silver Star in Fort Lauderdale. My seat is wide and comfortable with lots of leg room, comparable to an airline business-class seat.
At first, the tracks stay close to Interstate 95, and the scenery is familiar. But after West Palm Beach, towns give way to orange groves, the trees heavy with fruit.
Around lunchtime, my seatmate - an expert after her first train trip the week before - gives me the rundown on dining: I can ask the attendant about a reservation for the dining car, which has table service, or I can go with her to the cafe car, which sells convenience foods at a counter. I go with her.
The cafe car sells pre-made sandwiches, microwaved hot food (soup, noodle cups, burgers), packaged snacks and drinks. The foodie side of me is pretty disgusted (what was I expecting - a bistro?) but we buy coffee and sandwiches and take them to an empty table. My tuna sandwich was made so long ago that the liquids have seeped through the bread, which has all but dissolved.
Back in my seat, I see the scenery has changed again. We pass strawberry fields, junkyards and oaks dripping with Spanish moss.
In Tampa, I walk four blocks to the Greyhound station, then kill two hours reading.
It's 5:30 p.m. when the bus drops me off in St. Petersburg and I walk the last mile to my hotel, pulling my rollaboard past closed shops along Central Avenue.
I've booked a room at the Ponce de Leon Hotel. It's just $79 a night, quite a deal for its location close to the bay and the museums and restaurants I want to visit. Cheaper lodgings are available, but they're a couple miles away and inconvenient for touring this part of the city on foot.
The room is small, spare and neat. There's no art on the walls, but it has a microwave and small refrigerator. The bathroom is tiny. I grab a jacket and leave, eager to get to the Columbia restaurant to watch the sunset. The walk is just under a mile. The red downtown trolley - The Looper - turns onto The Pier ahead of me.
At the end of The Pier is a five-story inverted pyramid with shops and a small aquarium on the lower floors, restaurants above. A booth is selling tickets to 90-minute dolphin cruises on the bay, and I do some quick calculations before reluctantly concluding that I don't have time on this trip.
At Columbia, the dining room is busy, but I'm the only customer at the bar. I savor my mussels and chorizo.
Next stop: Ceviche, a restaurant on the ground floor of my hotel. Ceviche has flamenco dancing five days a week, but not tonight. Even so, it's pleasantly lively, and I linger over my "tabla de queso."
The next morning, I walk two blocks to The Looper stop, which I plan to ride to the Salvador Dali Museum, a mile south of my hotel. But the trolley never comes. Later, I find out it was canceled because it was Martin Luther King Day and a parade was scheduled that would crisscross the trolley route. So I walk the mile.
By mid-afternoon, when I have to catch the train, I've seen the Dali museum, which does the best job of any art museum I've seen of deconstructing and explaining an artist's work; have been brought to tears by exhibits at the Florida Holocaust Museum; had a lunch of caprese salad and fried oysters at the Central Avenue Oyster Bar; and walked about 2 { miles.
I pick up my luggage at the Ponce, then catch (1) a cab for the $20 ride to the Amtrak bus station on the St. Petersburg-Clearwater border; (2) a bus that takes me back across the bay to the Tampa train station; and (3) the train.
JACKSONVILLE: An easy place to get around
I make reservations for the dining car as soon as I board the train, so I have my choice of times and get a table to myself. I've eaten enough train food to know that it does not match the expectations raised by the table linens, china and flowers, and my roast chicken dinner - which arrives with the wrong side dishes - is no different.
The train won't arrive in Jacksonville til 10:30 p.m., and back in my seat, I find the late hour is making some of the youngest riders cranky. A child in front of me spills her dinner on the floor and starts to cry. Her brother whines that he wants candy. A little girl behind me shrieks at her mother, who yells back and throws a jacket at her; an attendant politely intervenes.
I put on my headphones and turn on my iPod. Soon I am lost in my book.
I grab a taxi for the 15-minute ride to my hotel. I'm gleeful because I managed to snag a room at the luxury Omni for only $75 a night at Hotwire.com.
Divided by the St. Johns River, Jacksonville has plenty of options for getting around, and the next day I try most of them. The monorail zips me from a park near the civic center across the river to the museum district. The water taxi returns me to the opposite shore by way of a leisurely cruise. And I ride a trolley in a loop around the city, past Alltel Stadium, where the Jaguars play, and the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, a pretty ballpark where the minor-league Suns play. It's the only day of this trip when my walking will total no more than a mile.
Amid all these rides, I stop at the Museum of Contemporary Art, where one of the only rooms open while exhibits are changed is an impressive hands-on art program for children; the River City Brewing Co., which offers a tasty bowl of gumbo and a waterfront view; and the Museum of Science and History, which has pretty basic exhibits and an unsophisticated planetarium show.
Several people have steered me to the riverfront Jacksonville Landing, which looks like a smaller version of Bayside in Miami. It's across the street from the Omni - and as far as I can see, has the only restaurants close by other than the hotel restaurant - so I walk over for dinner, but I am disappointed by the food.
WINTER PARK: First stop the heart of downtown
It is still dark when the taxi leaves me at the train station for my 7:15 a.m. departure. The Silver Star - the early train - will get me to Winter Park at 10 a.m., giving me a full day to see the city.
The train station is in the middle of downtown, within sight of a park, Park Avenue (the main shopping and dining street), and the Park Plaza Hotel. As its name implies, Winter Park has been a resort for snowbirds since the 1880s, and the shops and restaurants along Park Avenue suggest the town still caters to an affluent crowd at leisure. It feels almost like a Seurat painting.
But I don't want to be hauling my suitcase around all day and the station has no luggage lockers; it doesn't occur to me to ask if the Park Plaza will check a bag for someone who's not a guest. So I walk the mile to the Best Western on the edge of town, check in, and walk another mile back.
It looks like storm clouds are gathering, and I hurry to a dock on Lake Osceola to catch the hourly Scenic Boat Tour along Winter Park's chain of lakes before it rains. Ten of us get on the pontoon boat, where I sit with a retired couple from Louisiana who sought out the boat tour as a respite from the theme parks.
As the aged captain navigates the narrow canals connecting the lakes, he fills us in on the history of Winter Park, Rollins College, the wealthy families who have vacation homes along its many lakes, the flora and fauna - all punctuated with puns and corny jokes. It is a pleasant way to pass an hour and learn some odd bits of history.
I stop for a spinach and chicken salad at the Briarpatch Restaurant, then walk to the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, which has the world's most comprehensive collection of work by Louis Comfort Tiffany. I gape in awe at the museum's centerpiece, a reconstructed chapel with stunning stained glass windows, glass-tiled columns and altar, and a chandelier of shimmering green glass.
I'm window-shopping along Park Avenue when I spot a small sign for a day spa with the magic words, "Walk-Ins Welcome." My shoulders ache after four days of lugging a camera bag and overstuffed purse, and my feet remind me of how much walking I've done. Minutes later, I'm on a massage table.
Refreshed, I browse menus for dinner. Most restaurants are on the pricey side, but I find an outside table at Bosphorus, a Turkish restaurant, and order a platter of mezes - Mediterranean appetizers - that come with an enormous round of pita bread, hot from the oven.
Mileage on foot today: About four miles.
In the morning, I haul my luggage back downtown one final time, eat a pear and gorgonzola omelet at the Briarpatch, then pick up a take-out sandwich at Panera Bread.
I'm waiting for the Silver Meteor - departing at 12:30 p.m. - when an older couple comes in with their grandson, who looks 3 or 4 years old and wants to ride the train. The ticket agent, whose affection for trains and train-lovers is obvious, suggests a short excursion to Kissimmee for lunch - an hour's ride in each direction, with a total fare of $30 for all three. The grandfather's face lights up, and he buys tickets for the next day.
By the time the southbound Silver Meteor stops in Winter Park, it has passengers who have been on the train for 24 hours or longer. They are identifiable by the debris that rings their seats - food wrappers, water bottles, magazines, tissues - and the weariness in their faces.
Before long, I make my way to the cafe car and eat the lunch I bought in Winter Park while I tally my expenses. Later, I'll learn that only food bought on the train is allowed to be eaten in the cafe car, but most of the tables are empty and no one objects today.
Transportation between cities has cost me $188.05, including train fare and the Amtrak/Trailways bus from St. Petersburg to Tampa ($114.30), Greyhound from Tampa to St. Petersburg ($12.75) and three cab rides including tips ($61).
If I'd driven, it would have cost me about $305 (850 miles (AT) 36 cents a mile) - plus $35-$40 for parking. If I had traveled with a companion, a second person's fares would have boosted the cost to $315; still a few dollars less than a driving trip.
Each leg has taken at least an hour longer than the same trip by car, and cost some convenience. But this journey is part of the growing trend of slower travel with its own pleasant compensations - the leisure of the train ride, the scenery not visible from I-95, the absence of traffic jams and metal detectors - and I know I've gotten a real deal.
I think of the little boy whose grandparents planned to take him for a train ride the next day. As they left the station, the gates clanged down, signaling that the train was approaching.
As the train chugged into view, the boy clapped his hands, so excited he was almost crying.
And I know at least one more passenger has learned about the romance of travel by train.
IF YOU GO:
TRANSPORTATION
-Amtrak, 800-872-7245; www.amtrak.com. Two northbound and two southbound trains daily. The Silver Meteor leaves Miami at 8:40 a.m., stays on the east side of the state and arrives in Jacksonville at 5:10 p.m. before continuing on to New York. The Silver Star leaves Miami at 11:50 a.m., jogs west to Tampa and arrives in Jacksonville at 10:37 p.m., then continues on to New York.
Dining: If you want table service, ask an agent when you board about reservations. If you ask early, you should get your choice of times, but you may be seated with strangers. You can buy sandwiches, snacks and drinks (including alcohol) in the cafe car, then grab a table or take your food back to your seat. Best bet: Bring your own food. The cafe car is supposed to be only for food bought on the train, but if there are empty tables, Amtrak may not chase off you and your outside food.
Tip: The overhead compartments are roomier than on airplanes, but you can check luggage too. You should arrive 30 minutes before departure.
-Greyhound, 800-231-2222; www.greyhound.com.
ST. PETERSBURG
-The Looper Trolley, 727-821-5166; www.loopertrolley.com. Fare 25 cents.
-The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority operates buses in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, including two express buses to Tampa and the Suncoast Beach Trolley. Fare $1.50. 727-540-1900; www.psta.net.
WHERE TO STAY
Ponce de Leon Hotel, 95 Central Ave.; 727-550-9300; www.poncedeleonhotel.com. Located a block from the waterfront. Rooms are small with minimalist decor but clean and comfortable with microwave and small refrigerator. Built in 1922, the hotel is noisy; ask for a room away from Central Avenue. Rooms from $99.
WHERE TO EAT: Columbia (800 Second Ave. NE, on the fourth floor of The Pier; 727-822-8000; www.columbiarestaurant.com). Traditional Spanish food, including tapas. Entrees, $9.95-$29. Ceviche (on the first floor of the Ponce de Leon Hotel; 727-209-2302; www.ceviche.com) serves more than 100 tapas ($3.50-$11) and paellas and cazuelas ($18-$35); flamenco dancing Tuesday-Saturday. Central Avenue Oyster Bar (249 Central Ave.; 727-897-9728; www.centraloysterbar.com) serves oysters and other seafood, pasta, steak and chicken. Dinner entrees, $12.95-$24.95.
WHAT TO DO: Salvador Dali Museum (1000 Third St. S.; 727-823-3767; www.salvadordalimuseum.org); Florida Holocaust Museum (55 Fifth St. South; 727-820-0100; www.flholocaustmuseum.org); The Pier (800 Second Ave. NE; 727-821-6443; www.stpete-pier.com) has a small aquarium, shops, restaurants, fishing, dolphin cruises.
JACKSONVILLE
-The Skyway Monorail operates daily Monday-Friday 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-11 p.m.; no service Sundays. Fare: 35 cents. www.jtaonthemove.com/services/skyway.aspx.
-The Jacksonville Transportation Authority operates the free Downtown Trolley (6 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays; no service Sundays); and city buses. 904-630-3181; www.jtaonthemove.com or www.jtafla.com.
-The Jacksonville Water Taxi, operates Sunday-Thursday 11 a.m.-9 p.m, Friday-Saturday 11 a.m.-11 p.m. along the St. Johns River. Fares: Adults $3 one way. 904-733-7782 or 877- 222-5873; www.jaxwatertaxi.com.
WHERE TO STAY: Omni Jacksonville Hotel, 245 Water St.; 904-355-6664; www.omnihotels.com/findahotel/jacksonville.aspx. Luxury hotel with 354 rooms, a block from the St. Johns river and across the street from Jacksonville Landing Riverfront Marketplace. Hotel's web site shows current rates from $129; in January, I scored a $75 rate on Hotwire.com.
WHERE TO EAT: River City Brewing Co., 835 Museum Cir.; 904-398-2299; www.rivercitybrew.com. Located on the south bank of the St. Johns River, across from Jacksonville Landing; onsite brewery, main dining room and Brewhouse Lounge. Entrees $18.25-$32.95.
WHAT TO DO: Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, 333 N. Laura St.; 904-366-6911; www.mocajacksonville.org. Museum of Science and History, 1025 Museum Circle; 904-396-6674; www.themosh.org. Jacksonville Landing, 904-353-1188; www.jacksonvillelanding.com. Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville (with playground for kids), http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sidt564.
WINTER PARK
LYNX, the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority, operates buses. 407-841-2279 or 407-841-LYNX; www.golynx.com.
WHERE TO STAY: Park Plaza Hotel (307 Park Ave. South; 407-647-1072; www.parkplazahotel.com) is centrally located just two blocks from the train station; rooms from $130. Best Western Mt. Vernon Inn (110 S Orlando Avenue, 407-647-1166; www.bestwestern.com) is a mile from downtown; rooms from $96.
WHERE TO EAT: Bosphorous Restaurant (108 S. Park Ave.; 407-644-8609; www.bosphorousrestaurant.com) offers Turkish cuisine, entrees $12.95-$29.95. Briarpatch Restaurant (252 N. Park Ave.; 407-628-8651) serves hearty omelettes, salads and sandwiches and has an antique soda fountain; entrees $9-$21. Panera Bread (329 N. Park Ave.; 407-645-3939; www.panerabread.com); this chain offers good takeout fare for eating in the park or on the train.
WHAT TO DO: Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, 445 N. Park Ave.; 407-645-5311; www.morsemuseum.org. Scenic Boat Tours, 312 E. Morse Blvd.; 407-644-4056; www.scenicboattours.com.
LEAVING THE CAR AT HOME
ST. PETERSBURG
-Getting there: Difficult. I chose St. Pete specifically because the train does not go all the way there, offering a bus transfer in Tampa that - as it turned out - is not available on trains arriving from South Florida. This leg took almost nine hours, traveling by train, Greyhound and on foot.
-Getting around: Good. The Looper Trolley (727-821-5166; www.loopertrolley.com; fare 25 cents) runs every 15 minutes and goes most places on the tourist circuit; a municipal bus (727-540-1900; www.psta.net; $1.50) goes to the beach. Many places are within a mile's walk of the downtown waterfront.
-Things to do: Excellent. Good museums, restaurants, ballpark, Central Avenue shops, The Pier and other attractions clustered near the downtown waterfront. Salvador Dali Museum (1000 Third St. S.; 727-823-3767; www.salvadordalimuseum.org); Florida Holocaust Museum (55 Fifth St. South; 727-820-0100; www.flholocaustmuseum.org); The Pier (800 Second Ave. NE; 727-821-6443; www.stpete-pier.com) has a small aquarium, shops, restaurants, fishing, dolphin cruises. Info: www.floridasbeach.com; 877-352-3224.
JACKSONVILLE
-Getting there: Fair. This leg took about 7 -{ hours from St. Pete, including two cab rides, bus and train. From Fort Lauderdale, it's an eight-hour or ten-hour train ride plus a 15-minute cab ride to downtown Jacksonville.
-Getting around: Excellent, except Sundays. Jacksonville has free trolleys and buses with several routes on the north side of the river (904-630-3181; www.jtaonthemove.com or www.jtafla.com), a monorail on both sides of the river (www.jtaonthemove.com/services/skyway.aspx; fare 35 cents), a water taxi (904-733-7782 or 877- 222-5873; www.jaxwatertaxi.com; fare $3). The trolley and monorail do not operate on Sundays.
-Things to do: Fair. Easily accessible museums and restaurants are OK but not worth a trip from South Florida - unless you're taking the kids to programs at the art museums or taking in a game at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, 333 N. Laura St.; 904-366-6911; www.mocajacksonville.org. Museum of Science and History, 1025 Museum Circle; 904-396-6674; www.themosh.org. Jacksonville Landing, 904-353-1188; www.jacksonvillelanding.com. Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville (with playground for kids), http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp?sidt564. Info: www.visitjacksonville.com; 800-733-2668.
WINTER PARK
-Getting there: Excellent. This leg took a little more than three hours by cab and train. The train station is in downtown Winter Park. From Fort Lauderdale, the train ride is five to seven hours.
-Getting around: Good - as long as you snag a room at the Park Plaza Hotel (407-647-1072; www.parkplazahotel.com), the only downtown lodging. Everything is within walking distance of the hotel and train station. If not, the nearest hotel is the Best Western Mt. Vernon Inn, a mile from downtown. Local buses (407-841-2279 or 407-841-LYNX; www.golynx.com) come through Winter Park, but neither the route nor schedule is convenient for the trip from downtown to the inn.
-Things to do: Excellent. Museums, shopping, interesting restaurants, and a boat ride are all clustered downtown. Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, 407-645-5311; www.morsemuseum.org. Scenic Boat Tours, 407-644-4056; www.scenicboattours.com. Info: www.orlandoinfo.com, 800-972-3304.
Marjie Lambert: mlambert@MiamiHerald.com
