TRAVEL DAY AND ARRIVAL CROATIA So after being on the road for 4 days we are finally settled into the Royal Ariston hotel in Dubrovnik. W e started travelling on Saturday morning. After trying travel to Toronto by train last year we did the same this year. Business class made the trip very relaxing as opposed to driving. We visited with our family for 3 days we were ready for the long haul. We arrived at Pearson 1 for the first leg of the trip to Amsterdam by KLM. It left at 4:45. Our Tour Manager Daisy met us and we quickly had our tickets, luggage tags and were through security. We managed to get 2 seats together, no small feat when our last names are spelled slightly different. (Don't ask!) 16 of us boarded the plane and the last person met us in Europe. We arrived around midnight (6am local time). Europe now has a new passport control system much like arriving in Canada. You scan you passport your photo is taken. Europe wants finger prints. Mine scanned OK (Judy's did not) at which point you need to go into a secondary line to see an agent. I headed for the automated line where they could not verify my information and I was directed to the agent line. The easy go line had nobody in it. We had been warned by Daisy to expect this! That went quickly. Waited until 10:30 for the next leg to Croatia and finally arrived in Dubrovnik. Our bus was waiting. We will have the same bus driver and guide for the entire trip with other local guides as needed. Check in went smoothly.

We had time to relax for a few hours. Needless to say we were tired by the time dinner was served around 6:30 local time. Staying 3 nights meant a big unpack getting our clothes ready for the next few days. After some searching we found everything we needed. There are 17 people on the tour and most seem to be fit enough for the activities planned. There are 5 couples and 7 independent women. Most are from Ontario. So everything starts tomorrow with a full day of touring!

Croatia Slovenia & Venice Croatia is an area that we have wanted to visit for a long time having heard about it from many travelling friends. None of our many cruises stopped in the area. So this year we decided to finally see this part of the world. After having travelled with Senior Discovery Tours the last 2 years we decided to travel with them again. We enjoyed our trips to Sicily and Tunisia. They are a one stop company that provides a complete package planned. The part that was and is most appealing is that the price they quote is all in – air fare, transfers, meals, all tips, tours, taxes, etc. One price done! The Croatia trip is 15 days long starting and ending with flights from Toronto.

This land tour concentrates on Croatia but we also visit Slovenia, have an opportunity to take a side trip to Montenegro; before finally ending up the trip with a short visit to Venice. Although we will be moving around the country, we will stay at least 2 days in every hotel. We fly into Dubrovnik to start the tour before going on to Mostar, Split, Zadar Zagreb Ljubljana and finally Venice. We are looking forward to world heritage sites, snow capped peaks, lakes and lush valleys before going underground to the impressive cave system and finally another visit to the always impressive Venice. It should be fun. In Toronto we will meet up with Daisy the tour manager. She was the manager on our last trip to Tunisia. We fly out on Monday afternoon October 5th to Amsterdam on KLM airlines before our second leg into Dubrovnik. We will retrace the flights from Venice on October 19. Watch for posts every day.

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.