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!

Day 9 Sbeitlia and Kairouan

Another day of leaving at 7 am! Today we made our way north from the fringes of the Sahara back to the more prosperous part of Tunisia. The landscape changed quite quickly from barren or scrub scrubvegetation to farms of olive trees. After about 3 hours we finally were at our main stop of the day was a city called Sbeitlia.

The destination in this small town was the site of a Roman City that had a population of around 10,000. It was built for retired Roman army personnel (a retirement community). Without a doubt the site was probably the best Roman ruins that we have seen. The area is only partially excavated but was massive in size. The detail of the ruins can't really be described. We have been to Pompey and Herculaneum near Naples and although the ruins are more detailed, they don't compare to the size of this place. If a soldier or a gladiator served the required number of years (25 and 15?) they retired here. The site was at a crossroads for trade in the area. It was also situated so that the Romans could control the Berber tribes from the south It spanned eons. There were 2 christian churches reconstructed complete with a priest houses and a baptistery. Large public and private baths, temples, wide roads, etc. Were on display. It would take years of work to reveal the entire site including a large amphitheatre that is still covered by sod. Truly an amazing site. Lunch and then a short ride later we were at our hotel which was an old fortress and a jail complete with the original prisoner cells. We did a walk through a very large Medina and were taken to a restored house which held the government certified carpet dealer.

After a short tour of the rooms, we sat through a demonstration of the carpets they had for sale starting with the most expensive ones working the way down in quality and price. Nobody purchased a carpet despite the hard sell. They were very good quality carpets. The most interesting thing was the sunset from the top of the building.

Dinner was an excellent buffet. Afterwards we were then treated to sweet mint tea and a chance to try a hookah. There were 3 flavours but I think that would have to be an acquired taste! The hotel is very modern and probably the best one we have stayed in on this trip. We move tomorrow to our next place and get to stay for 4 days in what they is an ocean resort. That will be a nice change!

Day 8 Chott el Jerid to Tozeur

7 am leaving comes early! The first part of the day was our time to see the Atlas mountains up close. It has been the site of the filming of 2 well known movies Star Wars and The English Patience. Groups of 4 boarded our jeeps – really land rovers. That was our transportation for the next 6.5 hours. 10 “jeeps” in all set out in convoy fashion for the long drive. Our driver spoke a bit of French and no English that we could understand.

It was an education in Tunisian “outback?” driving. I was in the front seat picking up clues. There were these red signs at main crossroads which I think the driver understood to be go fast through the intersection before someone from the other direction does the same. The white line dividing lanes I think means having the midpoint of the car aligned along it. Occasionally he would move a bit to the right. There were signs like camel crossing. We did see a number of camels in the desert during the day that seemed to be lost with no one around. Then we had to stop for a heard of goats crossing. What they could find to eat is a mystery. After driving for about an hour through an absolute desolate landscape we turned and were surrounded by green palm trees. The change to the oasis needs to be experienced. It was a true oasis!

That first stop included a walk on a short trail to a higher location and experience what an oasis is like in real life from a higher elevation. Seeing the stream emerge from the rock and feeds the palm trees that the people tend in an absolutely dry environment was educational. I think the real living is made from the tourists. Of course no matter where you looked there were vendors selling their wares. There were tables of desert roses rocks and multi coloured geodes, scarves, fossils etc. Seems that every turn had a duplicate stand, even up the mountain. The Atlas mountains are not the same as in Canada.

The second stop was at a waterfall. It was not of great height but it was fed by another spring. It had a pretty steady flow. Of course more shops! The caravan headed back towards Tozeur with a few more stops. From a pass we could see Algeria a few miles away. We have seen guards at some of the crossings. They did not stop the rovers but they were carrying rifles. Then a sharp turn and we were crossing a “salt lake” on no defined road! The rovers were driving all over the place but generally in the same direction. We passed one broken down structure used in some film and then stopped at the site for the filming of the English patience. There was not much there.

The final stop was at the site of the Tataouine village in Star Wars as well as scenes from Mos Espa in the later movies. We visited the Lars Homestead the other day. Fake building build with chicken wire (?) and plaster. Very realistic looking until you looked inside the building and could see everything is propped up by wooden beams. Tunisia is currently refurbishing the site as it is a big attraction.

After the awful ride in on the “non” roads over the salt plain, the driver took us over some high dunes (think attraction park rides) but then hit the newly paved road back to Tozeur. That ended the morning portion of the day.

After lunch (we barely made it back in time) we had some free time before heading out for dinner at the Eden Palm of either lamb or camel was to be served during the folkloric show. Mostly music with a bit of dancing tossed in.

Day 7 Chott to Tozeur

Today was not as gruelling as yesterday but SD Tours managed to fill the day. Since we left the northern part of Tunisia and headed south to the area of the Sahara desert, there has been quite a change in the landscape and vegetation. Yesterday we crossed through millions of olive trees stretching as far as the eye could see. Olives is one of the main agricultural products that Tunisia produces. Then as the vegetation became sparser we could start to see more of what you would think is dessert landscapes. Today once we got going it was miles of nothing. We started the morning with a short tour of the shops of Doez. We wonder where is the market for all the baskets, desert roses (sand formations) weaved dresses, mats, carpets and assorted other items that we seem to see in these shops at every stop. The one interesting thing was the man making shoes out of camel hides! We did see butchered camel meat in other shops.

Then we headed out across the largest salt lake in Tunis which seemed to go on forever. This is exactly what you would think of when you hear about a salt lake or salt plain.

It is not really a lake although there is the occasional shallow body of water but a completely flat area with a definite salt looking soil. Mirages were evident as you look across this vast area. In the middle of this area an occasional shop with the resources from the area appeared. They were selling bags of salt that they said came from the area. There were plenty of crystal quartz samples and many geodes on display. We did stop at one “coffee shop” covered in what appeared to be grass. It was extremely interesting in that the owner was selling espressos, lattes, etc. As well as other standard items. He had a modern “coffee” machine and knew what he was doing. We referred to it as the Tunisian Tim Horton's. It was the best latte so far. We finally made it to the “Golden Yasmin” hotel which was a step up from the previous hotel. We had lunch here and a bit of time to settle in since we will be here for 2 nights.

We then went on the optional excursion in the late afternoon which was a “carriage ride” (way better that than the one from yesterday) to the oasis where date palms can be found. Date palms is another of the items that can be found throughout the country. We have had them a number of times in the hotels. The tour (to a “private” grower) went through the process of growing dates. There were 500 female trees on the property and only 2 male trees! We also had a demonstration of how the dates are harvested. The 65 year old bare footed harvester climbed the tree to retrieve the fruit. It was quite impressive of how he did it. The carriage driver then took us into town where we walked through the media (area inside a walled area). This one was mainly used for housing with very few shops.

Once outside we wandered around again taking in the stalls (many selling just dates) as well as the baskets, woven rugs, etc. All in all an interesting day. Tomorrow we head out on jeeps for the “real” Sahara experience!

Day 6 El Jem To Douz

What a long day! Up at 5 on the bus by 6:30 and not at our next hotel until 7. Many miles on the bus today but some very interesting places to visit. After about 3 plus hours we arrived at the first stop El Jem, site of the third largest

Roman Colosseum in the world. Only the structures in Rome and another in Italy seated more. There was room for 35000 plus when it was in use. Today a portion of the seating has been rebuilt for public concerts, etc. El Jem is in the southern part of Tunisia but the town was at the crossroads of 6 routes in the the heart of one of Rome's food baskets. The tour was very thorough surpassing what we got when in Rome. We had a chance to see the area beneath the floor where the wild animals were penned. Only a portion of the seating remains, the rest having collapse over the centuries. We walked up the the highest level which is about 4 stories high. One has to marvel at the engineering know how of the Romans. The structure is still standing because of the extensive use of arches for support and extremely thick walls. Etched on some of the blocks were references to U.S. Troops from WW2 who were stationed there. One was dated 1943 with a drawing of a pistol!

From there is was off to lunch at the place where Star Wars was filmed. It was used in some of the scenes from the first movie in 1976 for the place where Luke lived. Most of the building is underground and some of the props from the house are still in the location where the filming took place. It is now a small (very small) hotel. That was the lunch stop for the day.

Next was a stop at an actual Berber house. The hills have many of these houses that are carved out of the rock. It was a full “house” where generations starting with grandma on down lived. It is still in use today. A tourist attraction but not in the common sense of the word.

The final stop was an optional tour. This one was billed as a ride on a camel out into the desert and watch the sunset. Well sure. We were late and it was a bit cloudy! After the experience Judy had with getting on a camel in Egypt, we declined the beast and took a “carriage” ride instead. The billing was way more exciting than the ride itself. Besides camels and buggies, there were cars, motor bikes and ATV's running all over the place. It is a wonder that someone has not been killed. The ATV's were at full throttle driving all wherever they wanted to over the dunes. We were quite sedate on our buggy! The hotel was close to the camel riding site and we just made it in time for the start of dinner. Tomorrow should be a bit easier. We are only here for tonight which is probably a good thing! A long and interesting day!

Kerkouane And A Preserved Phoenician Town

Today the tour seemed to ramp up with a longer day. We departed at 8am for the Cape Bon area which is the garden Peninsula south of the city of Tunis. It is between seasons here so the area was very dry looking. There were miles of olive trees but no evidence of the garden vegetables except the fields had evidence of having been farmed recently. Before getting to our final destination we stopped to photograph a 2500 year old olive tree. It is the second oldest tree in Europe.

We reached our destination after 2.5 hours on the bus which was the Phoenician town ruins. The site was inhabited in the centuries BC and was destroyed around 320 BC but rebuilt. The Romans destroyed it around 220 BC and it was never rebuilt after that. The centuries buried the site which was right on the Mediterranean as you might expect. It was never reestablished. The result that the grounds were not contaminated by other civilizations building on topic. The site probably held up to 2000 people. Only a small portion is exposed. The area showed signs of an advanced culture revealing luxurious houses with mosaic floors. Many artifacts were displayed in the museum. The overall impression was a well preserved well reconstructed site. The foundations were clearly shown. There was evidence of the houses having a second story.

A short bus ride took us to our lunch shop, a fish restaurant in a small fishing village. The main course was a whole fish served after the fish soup. The soup was good (some opted for a salad). The main plate had the fish looking at me! Some opted for chicken. I gutted and removed the spine. It had a very mild and pleasant tasting. Other than the bones, it was good and an interesting experience. As we headed home we stopped at a place where there were thousands of flamingos. The bus ride home involved a stop at a pottery shop. We came to expect this type of stop on ship tours but not on this one. Again a Tunisian tour company has arranged the tour for SD Tours. Tomorrow will be a very long day – the bus leaves at 6:30 for our next destination. We head south to the Sahara desert and a full schedule until after sunset.

A Day In Hammamet: A Fort and Wine Tasting

Today was our first day of touring activities. A short drive took us to the centre of Hammamet. It is located right on the Mediterranean which means that it has had many different invaders. The main attraction was the Medina. A Medina is the old walled part of a North African town although we encountered the same in Sicily last year. The fortress wall surrounds this old section of town. The medina has very narrow streets with many intersecting twisting walkways. It would be easy to get lost in it but this one was very small.

The upper levels had some very expensive living areas, the lower levels were occupied by old houses with interesting doors. An interesting fact is that the doors have 3 different knockers. A lower small one is for use by children. Bigger ones and shoulder lever are for women to knock (on the left) and a larger one on the right for men. They each make a different sound so the occupant knows who is at the door. If a woman knocks a woman would answer. We did stop at the Dar Khadija very small museum. It had displays of various time periods from Tunisia's history. After that we stopped at the fort. The high wall afforded a nice view of the city but there was not much else of interest in fort.After about an hour bus ride we arrived at the winery for a tour.

Having visited a number of wineries in the past, as a tourist attraction it has a ways to go. We were treated to a wine tasting. A number of bottles of there wines were on a long display table and we just helped ourselves to as much or whatever we wanted. Lunch was in the same room with again long tables in the middle of all the large wine casks. Lunch was OK but it does to upgrade a lot to be a big attraction. We did buy a bottle to have in our room. Dinner tonight was the full buffet as usual. We were treated to a wine or beer by SDTours.

Tomorrow we have a very full schedule leaving at 6:30. Tunisia's garden peninsula and a preserved Phoenician town are on the schedule.

A Relaxing Day In Hammamet

After a really good sleep after the very long day(s) we did manage to get up in time for breakfast. The buffet area is very extensive and it is hard to resist overeating but lunch comes quickly.

Today was billed as a day to relax. The only thing we had on the schedule was a group meeting to review details of the entire trip. Daisy the tour manager went over a few general details for the trip (rotation of seats, covid, etc) and then OMAR the actual guide outlined the entire tour. SD Tours arranged the tour but it seems a local company was hired to conduct the entire thing. That is why Omar is the guide for everything. That is a bit of a change from last year's Sicily trip. There was way too much info at the meeting. For example what will have for lunch next week when we are away from the hotels! The only disappointment is that will not be using the “individual” voice transmitters for the guide which I found very useful last year. We changed some funds into the local currency to have available to spend in the small towns. They have a money exchange in the hotels which is convenient and the rate of exchange is set by the government. I had to go back to the room for a minute and decided to take the stairs back. Unfortunately the door locked and I found myself on the roof! Judy would never have found me but I eventually did find a propped up door to get back into the hotel. I did have a nice view of the ocean! We had a chance to walk the grounds. This is a very large resort judging by the number of lawn chairs next to the pool. We are right on the Mediterranean Sea with a very nice beach. This is a large resort (one of many in the area) and they have a large number of visitors from Europe. We did go for a walk towards the main part of town but stopped short. It is on the schedule with a guide in the next few days. Dinner tonight was the full buffet as usual. Tomorrow we go on our first tour. There is a bit of confusion as to what we will be doing. Our printed itinerary says one things but Omar seemed to flip days. Does it matter?

TRAVEL DAY AND ARRIVAL IN MANNANET TUNISIA

So we did finally arrive in Tunisia. We started travelling on Friday morning. We decided to take the train to Toronto and just enjoy the trip there. After an overnight with our family there (and a good night's sleep) we arrived at the airport around 4 for the first leg of the trip to Paris. It left at 7:45. Our Tour Manager Daisy met us and we quickly had our tickets, luggage tags and were through security. Unfortunately the airline seats you where they want and Judy was a few rows away from my seat further back in the bus. We spent our wait time talking to the others on our tour. We were all wearing our name tags! The Air France plane ride was smooth arriving in Paris aground 8. Judy did snag 2 glasses of wine. In Paris we had a 5 hour layover before out flight to Tunis. Senior Discovery gave each of the travellers a small stipend for food while we waited. It was a long wait after the long trans Atlantic ride and we did get a bit to eat but were not very hungry. Of course all of this was on top of the no sleep because of the red eye flight. Finally just after 2 we boarded for the final flight to Tunis. We were a bit delayed getting to Tunis and then over an hour wait to clear immigration.

I think the immigration agent was taking on the phone (to his girlfriend?). He took forever. We were one of the last of our tour group to finally clear the area. Needless to say we were tired by the time dinner was served around 7:00 local time. We had just finished the bus ride from the airport when it was time for the huge buffet style offering. We managed to eat a full meal and then got to our room. Staying 4 nights meant a big unpack getting our clothes ready for the next few days. After some searching we found everything we needed. There are 37 people on the tour and most seem to be fit enough for the activities planned. We have many from the west (Calgary, Vancouver, etc.) as well as Ontario. We will have one local guide for all site seeing. He has been a guide for close to 20 years so there should be plenty of local knowledge. So everything starts tomorrow with a resort day! We have a group meeting tomorrow and then “Free Time”

Tunisia Overview

After having travelled with Senior Discovery Tours last year and found that it was everything as advertised we decided

to travel again this fall. Our first choice did not have a the number of people needed to make the trip viable so we picked something that is is a little off the beaten path – Tunisia. This 16 day trip takes us to the north shore of Africa. Tunisia is due south of Sicily and has been described as a forgotten destination. Senior Discovery Tours main office is in Toronto but they are located in big cities across Canada. Everything is conducted by phone. Last year we were a bit skeptical about not using a travel agent but it worked out great. This company has a beautiful printed brochure. No need to look though pages of material on the internet although you can find them there as well. 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! This land tour has a few more hotels than the Sicily trip. We stay 4 nights in Hammamet, leave on a 4 night coach tour to the south for desert oaisis, roman ruins resorts holy cities, Berber villages etc. Then we return north for a 4 day stay in Sousse and then finish with 2 night in Gammarth near Tunis the capital.

It is close to the Roman ruins of Carthage All the hotels are “resort”type hotels. With the central Mediterranean location, Tunisia has a long history of many cultural occupations. Phoenicians founded Carthage, next came the Romans, Vandals and Byzantine rule followed by the Arab and Ottoman Empires and finally the French. This has resulted in a variety and mixture of ruins and architectural styles. It should be fun. We fly out on Saturday night November 1 for Paris and then transfer for the second leg to Tunisia arriving later Sunday. We will retrace the flights from Tunis on November 16. Watch for posts every day.