Tunisia - 28 September 2010 (2)

Kairouan

After lunch, we headed for Kairouan and the Hotel Splendide.  The room had a lot of mirrors and was nice and light, but the shower did not look too clean.  We had half an hour to unpack and get ready for a tour of the medina.  Just before we left the room, the nearby mosque started the call to prayer.  We wouldn’t need our alarm clocks the next morning!

On heading into the medina, my intention was to look for skirts whilst the others had the promised trip into a carpet shop, but this did not happen.  Instead, Lotfi quickly led us from one side of the medina to the other along the Rue 7 Novembre, which is a very wide road for a medina.  We passed several leather shops and other shops selling very colourful spices.  There was some jewellery and quite a few clothes shops, but there was no time to look and, at first glance, they did not sell what I was looking for.

Bir Barouta

It started to rain and the stalls were put away, so we went into the Bir Barouta.  This is a sacred well.  The water is raised by a muzzled and blindfolded camel working a sakia.  Lotfi assured us that the camels worked two hour shifts and were then changed.  We stood round the edge of the room and watched him and I was able to stroke him when the “performance” was over.  The hair on the front of his neck was surprisingly soft.

It was still raining when we emerged, so we took shelter in an enclosed part of the medina.  But the rain showed no signs of stopping, so we set off in search of a “typical” old house which Lotfi wanted to show us.  The trouble was that he was unsure of the way.  At one point we went into a carpet shop to ask for directions.  The people inside started to get excited at the prospect of customers, but it was short lived as we left before they were able to get any carpets out.  One of the streets we walked down was completely flooded.  My feet, in my open sandals, felt horribly gritty.  Some of us were prepared and wore raincoats, but I just had my normal clothes for the day.  I contented myself with the thought that my hair would be lovely and soft after all the rain.

Eventually we did find the house and walked in looking like drowned rats.  Despite that, we were welcomed in and we were even allowed to sit on the seats, dripping copious amounts of rainwater.  The house had been used by the main family in Kairouan until just 10 years ago.  The grandson of the family was actually in the house during our visit.

The house had two reception rooms near the entrance: one for men and one for women.  The women’s room had tilted mirrors above the divans so they could admire themselves.  The kitchen was behind the women’s room.  There was just a small stove but a huge range of copper cooking pots of various shapes and sizes.  The bedrooms had a sleeping alcove at each end.  This was true even of the marital bedroom so that the wife could sleep alone when pregnant or when she had a new baby.  There were some steep stairs which led to a store room, but you had to go down backwards so I did not try.

The central courtyard was full of plants.  It was overlooked by an upstairs balcony decorated in wrought ironwork.  We went up and saw some more reception rooms with wonderful antique chairs.  The guest bedroom was here, also with two beds.

We went up some more stairs to the roof.  Unfortunately this was open to the rain, so we did not stay long.  On a sunny day, it would have been pleasant to sit up here and enjoy the views while drinking tea.  Instead we went back down to the men’s reception room for the most welcome tea and pastries.  I tried some of the makhroud, which are local delicacies made from dates.  They were surprisingly nice.  While we ate, the grandson took our photos.  I don't think that we made a good advert for the place in such a soggy state.  As we were leaving, I looked at the photos of the family when they lived in the house.  The grandson seemed so happy to have us as visitors, it was quite touching.

Lotfi had rung Hammadi, who was waiting in the bus by the nearest gate to the medina, so we did not have far to walk.  The rain was slowing, so we did not get really wet again.  The one way system meant that the bus had to take the long route round town, but we reached the hotel eventually.  Sparrows were coming in to roost in a nearby tree and there was lots of chirping despite the rain.

Caroline and I chilled out in the room, drinking cups of tea made with a travel kettle she had bought in Heathrow.  It did not seem to be working very well.    The call to prayer started again.  It was a real auditory experience, enhanced by the birdsong emanating from the roost.

At 19.20 we went for our daily briefing and then braved the rain to walk to a nearby restaurant.  Luckily it was not too far.  We all sat upstairs and opened the window.  We heard a wedding procession go past.  Not a good day for a wedding!  It was still raining when we finished dinner.  I went straight back to the hotel and bed, but Caroline and some of the others stayed out.

Tunisia - 28 September 2010 (1)

Sbeitla

Olive Press

I got up at 06.00 and was ready and almost packed by 07.00 for breakfast.  We recognised a few people in the dining room as we had passed them on our travels.  Although there were so few other tourists on the route, there were not that many hotels either, so it was inevitable that we should encounter the same people.  One of the good things about Tunisia (which was even more true in Libya), was that we almost had the ancient sites to ourselves when we visited them.  It was great to be able to listen to our guides without hearing the same tale in French or German and not to have lots of strangers cluttering the photos.

Mosaic in Baptismal Font

Palaestra in the Baths

As we drove out of town, Lotfi pointed out the statues of desert foxes with extremely long ears and wearing blue track suits.  These are Labib and his sons and were the creation of the Ministry of the Environment to encourage people, especially children, to keep Tunisia tidy and to save energy and water.  We passed these statues several times on our journey.

Underfloor Heating in Baths

Basilica

Our main site today was Sbeitla.  On the way there, we saw a monument of an apple, so we stopped to take photos.  We had a mini-revolt and went straight into a café, where Kim treated us all to coffee.  Next stop on the journey was at a roadside stall selling apples.  Lotfi said that they were a good price at D1.500/kg.  I never buy apples, so could not comment on the price, but I did buy a kilo here as I was starting to realise that vegetarian food would be hard to come by at times and I needed to eat more fruit.  I ate one of the apples at once and it was all right.

Theatre

Antonine Gate

Sbeitla was quite an impressive site.  It covered a large area which, unlike Dougga, was flat.  We walked round the whole site, starting at the olive press and then moved on to the baths.  There was a heavily restored theatre near the dry river valley, where we had a brief rest.  Sbeitla is famous for its six churches or basilicas.  As in Rome, some had originally been Roman temples, but had been converted when Christianity took hold.  Some of them had ornate, mosaic covered baptismal fonts and there were other mosaics on the floors.  The best area on the site was the forum, which boasted three impressive temples – to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva – on one side.  We approached the forum through the Antonine Gate and I spent quite a long time standing there, enjoying the cool breeze which was blowing through.

Temples in the Forum

Basin in Basilica of St Vitalis

We walked back to the entrance, which was an enclosed area on the other side of the road, with a few shops in an inner courtyard.  There was some confusion over lunch.  Lotfi wanted to take us to a pizzeria, but Ruth decided that we could buy food from the shops in the courtyard instead.  The food was very limited, so I had to settle for a muffin with some bad tasting chocolate cream inside and some water.  One of the complaints I did have about the tour was that there were quite a lot of “picnic” lunches with food gleaned from small supermarkets.  Without proper utensils, it wasn't that easy to find things to eat.

Font in Basilica of St Vitalis

Mosaic in Basilica

Tunisia - 27 September 2010 (2)

El Kef

Another of my feathered friends

As we headed back to El Kef, I fell asleep again.  We got out at the hotel instead of going into town to eat.  The hotel maids were eating in the area by the canaries and, very generously, offered us some of their lunch.  We thanked them but declined.

Heuly, Caroline and I went down to the pool.  The others were brave and went in, but only briefly.  The water was very cold when I tested it – just with my toes.  Anne joined us and then Ruth when she got back from town.  She managed to stay in long enough to swim two lengths.

Roman Baths

Later, we were taken back into El Kef.  I thought we were going to do some shopping, but Lotfi wanted to give us another guided tour.  Our first stop was to admire the cisterns of El Kef, but then we met someone who worked in a traditional house, now used as offices and for meetings and classes.  She invited us in to see the house, which was arranged around a central courtyard, with a garden in the middle in Andalusian style.  There were some very pretty, Tunisian made tiles on the walls.

Ruth had gone to find Werner, who said he wanted to revisit his hotel from a much earlier trip.  She failed to find him and met up with us in the old Roman baths. The site was surrounded by modern buildings, with apartment blocks forming part of the walls of the site.  There were lots of columns and votive stelae, but there were only a few rooms as these baths were smaller than others we had seen.

El Kef from the Kasbah

Then it was time to begin the climb to the Kasbah.  We went up and up and up.  Lotfi kept saying: “it’s not far now” as we came to the top of a flight of steps, but when we got there and went round the corner, there would be more steps and the climb would continue.  At long last we reached the Kasbah and discovered that there were two of them.

El Kef and City Wall

We went into the smaller one which was showing serious signs of neglect.  We climbed up to the walkway at the top of the walls and looked out over the town.  I did not take any photos as Lotfi said that there would be much better views from the other Kasbah, but I could see the inner courtyards of the blue and white houses down below and the mountains in the distance.

View across to Algeria

Then we went into the larger Kasbah, which was in much better condition and is used for concerts.  They were getting ready for a concert that week, which meant that we could not enter one of the rooms which stored all the equipment for the event.  The entrance to the Kasbah was over a moat.  Lotfi said that it had been full of crocodiles at one time.  As we climbed up to the roof, we were serenaded by hundreds of sparrows and some larger birds, which were coming to roost in a nearby tree.  A mobile phone tower was also a popular roosting site.

Kasbah from below

From the roof, Lotfi pointed out the flat mountain where Jugurtha held out against the Romans.  He said that some of the hills in that direction were in Algeria.  Algeria was just 40km away, which was why the Kasbah had remained an important military establishment for a long time.  Looking closer at the town, we could see the remains of the city wall.

After exploring the Kasbah, we headed for a café where we could enjoy our first Arabic coffee.  The café was in a dead end street, which had a tree growing at the end, providing some welcome shade.  Arabic coffee is exactly the same as Greek coffee or Turkish coffee.  We caused problems because we did not want the very sweet pre-made coffee, so we had to wait for our order.

Sparrows serenading us

I wanted to buy a skirt as I was not happy with the clothes I had with me.  Sue offered to show me where there were some market stalls, so we left the others and headed down the hill.

We walked past the synagogue and looked in through the door.  We avoided going in as it was getting late and there was an entrance fee.  Our descent took us through a courtyard, where some little boys wished us “Bon Jour”.  We chatted to them and their mothers as we walked by.  Unfortunately, the market was closing when we got there.  I did look at one clothes stall, but there was nothing suitable.  Keen to make a sale, the stallholders kept suggesting things, but they seemed to be the wrong material or too many frills and flounces or just too good for walking round dusty ruins.  I did try on one denim skirt, but it was too tight.

Sue wanted to go back to the hotel to fetch Kim and to see whether Werner had gone back there, so we started to look for a taxi.  A Brazilian girl, who had studied in England, offered her translation services, but we did not need them and soon found a taxi.  Sue found both Kim and Werner at the hotel so, after just a few minutes, we got into another taxi and headed to the Post Office, which we had been told was near to the restaurant where we were eating that night.

We looked for the restaurant, found one and asked if they had a reservation for 10-12 people.  We were in luck, so we waited and, just as we were about to order drinks, Ruth appeared.  This time we were not offered the set meal, but could place our own orders.  It was a nice meal: just D5.000 for salad and chips.

Tunisia - 27 September 2010 (1)

Bulla Regia

Cisterns and rear of Memmian Baths

Snails on a column

Breakfast was very good and I enjoyed what was probably the largest pain au chocolat I have ever eaten.  Ruth had bought some pomegranates and she opened one for us to try.  I am not a great fruit eater, but thought this was quite nice.  I was not sure whether to eat the seeds or not, having read the story of Persephone and the pomegranate, but the others ate them, so I did the same.

Memmion Baths

Memmion Baths

Our first stop today was Bulla Regia.  I read for some of the journey and then fell asleep.  I woke up as we went round a roundabout and the policeman on duty waved to Hammadi.  We either went round the same roundabout again or the policeman had a brother because, a few minutes later, we got another wave from someone very similar.

The car park for Bulla Regia was on the other side of the road from the site.  As we crossed over, three small boys walked past, wearing their school uniforms, and wished us “Bon Jour”.

Underground House

Peacock Mosaic

The first stop on the site was the cisterns – water was obviously a very important consideration and a feature of almost all the sites we visited.  An unknown building stood to the side.  I was more fascinated by the small white snails which covered some pillars in front of the building.  They were to be found throughout the site.  The large building behind the cisterns was the remains of the baths.  These covered 3,300m² and, in some ways, were more impressive than the Antonine Baths in Carthage – though without the fantastic setting.

Mosaic of the Hunt

House of Amphitrite

Bulla Regia is important because it contains some underground houses.  As the day warmed up, I could definitely see the advantage of living below ground.  Several have been excavated and we saw people working on one called the “House of the Hunt”.  Some well preserved mosaics have been discovered underground and Caroline insisted that I went down into the second house to see the mosaic of Venus.

Lotfi Inside an Underground House

Theatre

There was not much left of the forum and market, but the theatre, though small, was still standing.  We entered through the back, like the audience would have done, exploring the corridors behind the seating.  We finally made it through to the seats and could see a mosaic of a bear on the stage area.

Bear Mosaic in Theatre

Donkey

As we left the site, we saw a lady with her donkey.  She was collecting water from a pipe and assured us that it was clean and OK to drink.  Werner shocked us all by using it to fill up his water bottle.

We were given half an hour to eat and look at souvenirs.  In the end, I was the only person to eat, but I enjoyed a very nice mushroom omelette.  The others just bought drinks and ate ice creams.

At last - a bird which is not a pigeon!

Tunisia - 26 September 2010 (4)

We got back on the bus at 16.00 and headed for El Kef.  I slept all the way.

One of my feathered friends

Our hotel – the Hotel des Pins – was so much nicer than the one in Tunis, but it was quite a way outside town.  It was built on a spiral so we went down and round to our rooms.  The spiral continued down to a central courtyard with a swimming pool.  Just beyond reception there were several cages of canaries and I amused myself by getting them to chirp.

We were taken to a restaurant in town where we were given a very large set meal.  Most of the restaurants on the trip wanted to give us set meals, but no one really wants to eat that much every time.  It was made even more difficult for Caroline and I who were vegetarians.  This evening our first course was a salad, but I thought I detected a tuna taste, as if someone had removed the fish from the plate before serving.  Worse, I was convinced that I found a chip of bone in my vegetable couscous, so sent that back immediately and did not eat that much of the replacement dish.

Still, we all had a good chat over dinner – mostly talking about the adventures we had enjoyed as children, when we were allowed to roam free with minimal parental supervision.  I guess that is a common subject among older people – Caroline had done some research and I was the youngest (if you ignore Ruth).

Tunisia - 26 September 2010 (3)

Dougga

Theatre

Temple to Jupiter, Juno, Minerva

The next stop was the very impressive site of Dougga.  The ruins are draped on a hillside and include a well-preserved theatre, numerous temples, baths, cisterns, large villas, a mausoleum and an auditorium for bacchanalia.

It took a long time to explore everything and listen to all Lotfi’s explanations and the hill made the walking quite strenuous, but it was worth it.

Villa of Dar el Achab

Temple of Caelestis

At the far end of the site, a man sold us some prickly cactus fruits, which he peeled expertly.  I bought two, which were really nice.  He also gave me a sprig of tiny flowers, which smelt of peppermint.  As we walked back, we could see the pears and peppermint growing on the site, so our salesman probably got them for nothing.  Still, they were cheap and it was good to have them peeled.  I spotted his donkey and was impressed when it scratched its ear with its hind leg.

Temple

Arch of Alexander Severus

Licinian Baths

Cistern

Mausoleum

Donkey

Prickly Pear

Tunisia - 26 September 2010 (2)

Testour

Minaret in Testour

We made an unplanned diversion to Testour which Salah had mentioned during our tour of Carthage.  When the Catholics expelled the Moslems from Spain, some refugees from Andalusia settled here.  Its mosque has achieved some fame because the minaret includes Star of David designs and the dial of the clock is numbered anticlockwise.

We walked up and down the main street, searching for a restaurant., but with no luck.  In the end we were forced to scour the shops and coffee bars to try to buy some lunch and I managed to find a citronade, stale madeira cake and some cashew nuts.  At least there were seats in a paved area near to where our bus was parked, so we had somewhere decent to sit and eat.

Tunisia - 26 September 2010 (1)

Bardo Museum

Getting ready for company

Although our room was a bit more pleasant when we got back because Caroline had managed to get us a fan, I woke up at 02.10 with a nightmare and then found it very difficult to get back to sleep.  During the briefing session, someone had pointed out that we needed $1,000 or a credit card with a similar amount to get into Libya.  As you do in the middle of the night, I started to worry because I had no dollars and only the equivalent of £500 in cash.  I had also forgotten to ring the bank and the credit card company to let them know that I would be going abroad, so would I be able to get any money out on my cards?  I spent hours turning things around in my head and finally got to sleep at 05.00.  The alarm went off at 06.00.

A God and the Four Seasons

We were all on the bus well before the due time.  The bus was large which meant that we were able to get our luggage inside and have lots of spare seats to spread out on.  I sat next to Werner and gave him my BBC History magazine.  Unfortunately, he took this as a much too positive sign and not just that I had felt sorry for him the previous evening.  With his bad breath and his suggestive comments, I resolved not to sit next to him again.

Food for thought

Our new guide, who was to remain with us until the border, was called Lotfi.  Again, he was an excellent guide and did the guiding on all the sites we visited.  If I have a complaint, it was that he knew so much and wanted to tell us everything, so we spent a long time listening to him and not just exploring the sites and feeling the atmosphere – but that is not really a complaint.  Our driver was called Hammadi.

Our first stop was the Bardo Museum, which is still in Tunis.  The museum was being refurbished and, if all the new rooms are as good as the ones already open for our visit, it will be spectacular.

Fishing

Baptismal Font

 Most of the items in the museum were mosaics, some of them of a very exceptional standard, using tiny tesserae, which made the pictures look much more true to life than the average mosaic.  The mosaics covered a range of subjects, the best being the everyday scenes of things like food, fishing, farming and a lady’s dressing room.  There were also some Christian mosaics and some that covered mythological scenes.  The new extension gave good, well lit views of the mosaics, which could be seen from both above and below as you wandered round the galleries.  One room had the heads of some Roman Emperors – Septimus Severus, Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.  Other rooms in the old part of the museum had some ornate baptismal fonts.

After the museum, we went for a drink in the nearby café and watched two tiny kittens having a wrestling match.

Wrestling Kittens