Day 16 Returning To Canada

Midnight Tunisian time (6 pm Ontario) was a bit early for a wake up call but that was required to get us to the airport to start back to Canada. Before we leave Tunisia, there area a few observations and comments to share. One thing was the road system. There are modern expressways as well as paved secondary streets. Only in the south in the Atlas mountains and salt lakes did the going get a bit rough. There are very few stop signs except for the largest town where you find the ever present traffic lights. However they do make extensive use of traffic circles which work just fine! Tunisia is a wonderful friendly country that are trying to build up the tourist industry. Having visited many UNSESCO sites with many ancient cultures on display they do have much to offer. Beautiful coastlines, endless olive groves, hidden oasis, salt lakes sand dunes , etc. add to the appeal of Tunisia. Many of the towns have medinas – old fortified or walled areas where people work and live. Every day brought another spectacular discovery. The friendly people and the endless number of sellers (not really pushy) of pottery, leather goods, camel skin shoes, as well as the standard key chains and fridge magnets add to the charm. An outstanding guide and tour director made this trip very enjoyable. Visit Tunisia if the opportunity arises. A 2.5 hour flight got us to Paris airport, a 5 hour wait and an 8 hour flight ended this adventure!

Day 15 Carthage

Today was our last day in Tunisia. We did have another full day starting at 9 and ending just after 6. This morning included a tour of the capital city Tunis. We started at the Bardo Museum. It is housed in a former palace.

It has one of the finest collections of Mosaics in the world. There are close to 200 mosaics plus other relics from all the ancient lands in Tunisia. Some of the mosaics were so large that it is hard to explain. The designs are very intricate. They are not just pieces of stone cemented together but rather whole stories. They went on and on forever. Every room was more outstanding than the last. How they removed them and then reconstructed the entire piece was amazing.

We did come across the 2 young girls who were friendly with people in our group. Everyone was taking pictures of them but I liked the East meet west as shown in the photo. That is a contrast that we constantly encountered. We only saw a few women with the full burka, many more with just the scarf and the rest in what you world expect to see in Canada. After lunch in a seaside restaurant, we headed to Carthage. We were well aware of the Punic Wars and the role that Hannibal and the elephants played.

The city that was destroyed by the Romans had 400,000 people living there at one time. The cistern was huge. Much of the ruined city is still buried with houses constructed on top. Unlike the other sites we have see, it was a bit “disjointed?” It was the site if the second largest Roman baths in the world. The layout was similar to what we say the other day.

Finally we made a stop at the resort town of Sidi Bou Said which overlooks the turquoise gulf: crowded, many souvenir shops, etc. The town was the main attraction. However the sunset although not the greatest was very nice. Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 2 am. Breakfast at 1am. We will be up about 24 hours by the time we land! It has been an amazing and exhausting trip but well worth it.

Day 14 Dougga To Tunis A Long Hard

After such a nice day yesterday today was another one of those long hard days with lots of kilometres to be covered. Early wake up call and then on the bus and on the road by 7 am. We had a 3 hour bus ride to our first stop. We were headed back west towards the Atlas mountains to a place called Dougga. It is about 550 meters above sea level. It is another Roman site but this one is the most impressive one we have ever seen.

It was more than just foundations, walls, etc. The temples were “completely” rebuilt. The roads, the baths, the houses etc were all very impressive. It is impossible to describe it. There was an amphitheatre, Roman baths where you could see all the rooms – cold, hot, etc. The heating system for the hot air was clearly visible, etc. We even saw the house of ill repute complete with public toilets. We had seen something similar in Ephesus. The main roads still bore the marks that the chariots made in the “pavement”. The forum and the markets were in a remarkable state.

All of the town was situated on a mountainside with a commanding view of the valley far below. It even had a mosque that was built on the site long after it had been abandoned by the Romans. In all quite the site. By the time we finished there it was past 1 and we headed for lunch at the only place in town. This site is a major tourist attraction and this place does a big tour bus business. There were 4 buses of various sizes in the parking lot. They served a chicken or wild boar meal. The boar is quite a tasty meat. We headed for Tunis about 2.5 hours away. The tour guide decided to take us into the city to see the capital buildings and the largest Medina in Tunisia. This one is a world heritage site. It really was quite impressive. About 100,000 people live in this walled area and where we walked there were many many shops selling all different types of goods. There were plenty of gold and silver places. It was impressive but it had been a long day.

Once outside the Medina we walked along the avenue built by the French who ruled the country in the 19th century. It reminded us of the main streets of Paris. He did show us a catholic church called St Vincent De Paul. It is a typical cathedral looking structure. We then headed to our hotel which is located outside Tunis in a place called Gammarth. The streets were congested early evening traffic and we did not get to the hotel until shortly before 7. As I said a very long hard day! Final tour day tomorrow! It feels like we are running a marathon.

Day 13 A Relaxing Day

Today was a stay around the hotel and just catch up on a few things. It seems every day we find something new at the buffet. It goes on forever and of course it changes every meal. We found the fresh squeezed OJ station today. It was out by the pool! Now that we will leaving early tomorrow we seems to have it figured out. We decided on a nice walk along the beach to the town and the harbour district. There was much more to see. We missed it the other day when we were there. We are leaving tomorrow morning so we took part of the day to pack out bags once again and just have a relaxing day. Always interesting. There was an optional activity but we decided to skip it. It was a 2 hour sail on a pirate ship. They went out just off shore and you could snorkel if you had equipment, fish or just hang around. Somebody who had been on it before gave us an idea about it. I think about half our group passed on the optional excursion. We had a line dance class this afternoon. Simple songs for people who had never even tired to dance before. It was as you would expect. We had about about 15. No men tried to dance. Everyone stayed until the end which was unexpected! It was a good way to spend a bit of time. The hotel did set up the sound system as well as a hand held mike. We danced 4 songs in the hour. After we did take a dip in the pool. Then it was back to the room. After 4 days here we needed to repack everything.

We had a wonderful time at dinner. Everyone stayed until the lights went out for a second. Good way to get everyone out! They have entertainment every evening but by the time it starts only a few people stay to attend. We leave at 7 tomorrow to head north to the capital Tunis for our last 2 days..

Day 12 Monastir

Another day of touring all day but at least tomorrow we have a off day. We decided not to go on an optional pirate ship ride for 2 hours tomorrow. We heard from someone who had gone it before said it was worse than it sounds. A number of others opted out as well. The day started slow as we went to the coastal city of Monastir and visited the Mausoleum of Habib Bourguiba the Tunisian father of Independence. It was a long ride to this location. It was interesting enough but we had never heard of this person so the importance may have been lost on us. We were given some free time and we chose to visit the old fort. The most interesting part was the watch tower which we headed for immediately. Of course the sight from the high elevation made the stop worth the climbing effort.

Next we headed to the city of Soussse and visited the Archaeological Museum in an old fortress. This was an amazing place. It holds items from North Africa dating as far back as the 7th century BC. The mosaics were taken from Roman towns and other places were incredible. The collection included the head of Meddua and the Face of Oceanud. The hours (days, years) that must have gone into producing them is beyond knowing. We have seem mosaics before but nothing compared to the size and detail of these. It was hard to capture the detail in these mosaics in a single photograph. Lunch was at a local restaurant and was absolutely delicious. Fish (the whole fish) like we had in the past or beef served with a mushroom sauce. We have not seen beef like that even in these resorts. It was definitely the best meal we have had outside the resorts.

Another Medina. We have seen a number of these on this trip. This one was filled with shops selling just about anything. The gold shops were very nice, brightly lit and clean looking. Vegetable stalls, a small fish market (Nothing like Busan Korea) meat shops, clothing, tons of shoe vendors, etc. Then of course all the souvenir shops with the usual knock offs! By this time the group had had it and we did eventually head back to the Palace. Our trip is coming to an end but we certainly have had a real education about this Arab country. I suspect that we will be hearing more about Tunisia as a tourist destination inn the future.

Day 11 Remembrance Day At The Marhaba Palace

Today was one of those days on the trip that was a day at leisure. As such we waited a bit before going down to breakfast. Like all the buffets, there are too many choices. They will make fried eggs, omelettes, fresh crepes etc while you wait! The big event this morning was a planned Remembrance Day service that we had asked to be held. There are a few veterans on the trip. A private room was arranged and one of our group - June took the lead with a planned program. A few of us spoke briefly and then at exactly 11 am we had a moment of silence. Before that we had the reading of In Flanders Field and other appropriate poems and short prayers. Then we all joined hands and sang Oh Canada. Someone brought a few bottles of wine and we had “up spirits” much like they do in the Legions on this day. In all it was a very appropriate ceremony.

Afterwards we walked along the beach. The sand is very fine and almost impossible to walk on. We stayed near the shoreline! We did get to the marina where we found many restaurants and of course the ever present shops selling the same goods. It was a good way to spend a few hours. A light lunch followed when we got back late to the resort. No problem today as they were still making fresh fried shrimp (while we waited). We did manage to eat enough!! This resort is full so we are allotted a 7:45 dinner start time with assigned or reserved tables. The group as a whole get along very well. It is impossible to get to know everyone but you sit down and start to chat and time flies. This is what happens after our late dinners.

Later in the afternoon we went by bus to a real mall to get a sense of how people in this large city (Sousse) actually shop. The mall was as modern as we have in Canada. Some of the stores have names that are similar to ours. The roadside stalls that were in every small village as we headed north the last few days were gone. No tables selling vegetables, fruit and used clothing. The stores are well lit with bright displays. They have a super store that sells everything from groceries to clothing but much larger than what we know. The food court has a Burger King and a KFC. One thing we noticed was that many young women were not wearing the traditional head scarf. The men (boys) were not wearing hats as we would see in our stores. The other thing noted was that we could not find any place that where you could have a beer. We tried but no luck. Touring tomorrow!

Day 10 A Mosque Vist and a Resort Hotel in Kairouan

Today was the start of a few days of less hectic activities. Leaving time was a reasonable 9 but we were up early and ready to go. There were 4 things on the agenda today. The first place (cisterns) was cancelled because the site is under renovations for the next 2 years. It was the original collection place for the water for the city. All the water from the surrounding hills was channel for use by the town. The second stop was at a museum for one of the followers of Muhammad. It was actually a small mosque still in use. The tour guide took the opportunities today to go into detailed explanations of the Koran and all that it entails. It was more of a lecture on the subject than explaining what we saw. It was a bit too much info for people. The third stop was at the largest mosque in the area. Having been to a much larger one in Istanbul a few years ago, the layout within the walls was very similar. The most interesting thing about the building is that the materials were taken from older buildings.

2 blocks had Latin writing (the block was upside down!) but clearly came from the same area that we visited yesterday. Some of the columns were also taken and reused so that if they were the wrong height they were made to fit. Many of the columns had different non Arabic writings and 2 even had small crosses on them. They were taken from Christian churches. Most of the crosses had been removed. The prayer room itself was interesting in that there were support pillars throughout the room, something we had not seen before.

Of course only men are allowed inside the main area. Women gather on the edges to pray. After that we headed to our Hotel the Marhaba Palace where we are going to stay for 4 nights. As we were leaving the mosque, the bus starting beeping about the rear door being opened. It would not close (?) It seemed ok but the sensor had been tripped. So the afternoon activity was rescheduled for tomorrow. The sandy beach is very nice. We will be having a Remembrance Day service in the morning. The day was scheduled as a free day at leisure so everything will fit in. This hotel is right on the ocean and is very beautiful. It is classed as a resort! The dining area has an extensive buffet. There are almost too many choices. The hotel paid for wine tonight (probably because of the foul up when we tried to check in). They kept filling the glasses! Needless to say some people lingered after dinner!