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.