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.