Day 29 - Saturday, 12/07/24 - La Goulette, Tunisia

After a somewhat rough sail from Malta to La Goulette, Tunisia, we found ourselves docked at the industrial port for Tunis. This was to be our first time visiting Tunisia and we were looking forward to a good day. After breakfast, we met up with our small group of six and scanned off the ship. For this port, we had to fill out arrival cards, which were barely examined by the local authorities, and we retained 1/2 which we surrendered when we returned to the ship later that day.

We met up with our guide and he escorted us over to a white Ford transit van which would be our transportation for the day. We ended up with two male guides, and one of them was quite an expert in history (Yazid), and the other (F) was more of a local oriented guide. Two things immediately surprised me. The first was that our driver was a woman. This is the first time that I can recall in all of our years of cruising that we've had a woman driver and here we are in an Arab nation. Further as we began to drive around and entered the Medina or old city, I observed many women not wearing any head coverings. When I asked our guide what this was all about, he was proud to say that Tunisia was the first Arabic country to recognize women's rights. They are free to work, to drive cars, get educated,  and this is in quite contrast to more conservative Islamic countries. After now, having visited three Arabian countries in Africa, I find it very interesting. How each displays the Islamic culture. Most surprising is that Egypt enjoys a peace treaty relationship with Israel and now in Tunisia, we see that women have far more rights than in the other two Arab countries that we have visited.

Arriving at the Medina (old town), we exited the van and our first stop was to visit the Roman Catholic cathedral (in the heart of the old town). The interior of the cathedral was surprisingly simple and we found that quite refreshing. The church did feature a number of stained glass windows, which were quite pretty. We then strolled through the narrow streets, dodging cars, and eventually entering pedestrian only zones with all measure of products and goods for sale. It was very crowded and there was a lot of activity. We even visited the local fish market, which was probably the loudest fish market we have ever visited with all of the shouting going on and there was a lot of fresh raw fish on display and the floors were extremely wet and slick. Adjoining the fish market was a produce market with absolutely exquisite looking produce well displayed, reasonably priced, and it was not quite as loud. Exiting the market we continued on our stroll and walked down several other streets they were filled with vendors. What was especially interesting was that there were no prices and the venders expected to haggle from the get-go. Some of the vendors were more aggressive than others but a polite no thank you seem to satisfy them and they didn't pursue us.  We ended up our stroll at a square in front of the government buildings, and there were all kinds of barricades set up for a possible demonstration. Our guide asked for permission from the police to be able to pull over the van so that we could board it right there and the permission was granted. While we were waiting for our van, a Holland America tour bus pulled up and was having trouble making the corner and wanted to let the passengers out, but the police would not let them because they didn't have permission.

Leaving the Medina, we drove back past the ship and the port to Carthage. Carthage is the ancient city that Hannibal was born in and that he started his fighting activities against the Romans and was banished back to by the Romans after he was defeated by the Romans. A site of Hannibal's town was covered by later Roman ruins, and it was a French archaeologist that discovered the original town when he did a proper archaeological excavation. Views from the city of Port area were quite nice and our guide gave quite a bit of history as we walked around the grounds.

Hannibal's Carthage

We then drove to the site of the children's cemetery that dated back to the Punic wars. It's right in the middle of a residential area and just recently they have discovered some more ruins when some utility work was being done in a local street. That area now is the site of an archaeological dig. From there, we drove up to the top of the hill and stopped in front of a Islamic cemetery and four of us got out of the van to begin a walking tour down through a little village, which is quite scenic with its white walls and blue window trim. Along the way we were able to take a little side, joint up the hill and got a nice view point over Carthage Bay. Continuing down the hill, we passed through another shopping district, and there were all measure of things for sale, including tapestries and rugs and camels and magnets and pottery and the like.

At the bottom of the hill our guide directed is into a local restaurant (Chez Christine) to have a local Tunisian meal. The rest of our group met up with us at the restaurant and we had a wonderful Tunisian meal. Angela and I split two entrée type dishes. One was a salad topped with tuna, and the second was a beef dish composed of chunks of fairly fatty beef along with liver, and accompanied by a wonderful sauce that we used baguette bread to dip in. Others chose different dishes and in the end, the total cost of the meal and drinks for eight of us was only €60 or about $63 US.

Our van showed up and we boarded it for a very short drive over to the ruins of the Roman water reservoir. Despite a sign that said we couldn't enter, our guide let us through the gate and we had a fabulous view of the ancient Roman water storage system. We could see multiple layers down into the ground of arches where water was stored and then the little farther down there were arched caverns that had been constructed out of bricks and mortar that were about 25 feet across looking at them and about 15 to 18 feet tall And about 200 to 300 feet long. And there were dozens and dozens of these which had to take a tremendous amount of labor and accumulation of materials to build these arched storage tanks. Each of the ceilings of the tanks had openings to the air so that the water could be aerated. After spending some time there and enjoying those ruins and the adjoining aqueduct,, we were driven back to the port where we said our goodbyes to our driver and guides and thank them for a wonderful day.

Inside the terminal building, many vendors were set up with little booths and stores to sell local crafts and other things. We had been looking for some small camels all day and it's one of the first vendors a lady had one for sale and when we asked if she had more, she produced some more and we bought them all. She also had some jewelry that Angela bought, and we then got in a lengthy conversation with her and her husband, who is Italian, but who worked in Germany and was fluent in German. The lady was fluent in French and so with a combination of English French and German, a fabulous conversation was had talking about many things. We also asked if we could purchase some coins of the local currency and it took a bit of looking, but they eventually were able to find some for us and in exchange I gave them a two dollar bill as a souvenir from Us. She did not want to take it and I had to plead with her to please take it as a gift from us. We then shopped the rest of the shops in the terminal building and Angela found a drum that she liked, and it was a very pleasant way to end our land portion of our time in La Goulette Tunisia.  I would add that many of the merchants accept euros, and I understand that the American dollar may also be accepted, but we didn't experience that.

Outside the terminal building, a vendor came out using a Canon camera with a telescopic lens. I had my camera which is a Nikon P900 out, and I shot a few photos and she was impressed with the zoom quality of the lens that I have compared to her Nikon. We enjoyed some conversation together as the sun was setting, but eventually we had to say our goodbyes and then head for the ship.

After dropping off our items in the state room, we headed up to the crows nest to watch the Sailway. The captain came on the PA system and gave his disembarkation announcement indicating that we would be sailing about a mile into the harbor to the turnaround basin. The Staff Captain would then rotate the ship 180° and we would sale out of the harbor into the open sea. on our way to Cagliari. Sardinia. Because our lunch was so filling, we elected to not eat dinner and went down to the showroom for the evening performance by a dance group FlaMENco's, which is a group of five male Spanish dancers and musicians and a singer.

While waiting for the performance to begin, the Capt. came on the PA system once again and indicated that he had some important news to share. He indicated that the projected weather at Cagliari and beyond was quite poor so that they had made the decision to extend our port call in Cagliari with a new on board time of 9 o'clock and a projected departure time of midnight. The departure time could be earlier depending on the weather conditions. The result of that change results in a delay in arriving in Gibraltar, which was originally scheduled for 2 PM and now if we set sail at midnight, we would not arrive until 4 PM. Of course the Holland America shore excursions team is now scrambling to change all of the shore excursions scheduled for Gibraltar. We have one that was scheduled for shortly after our arrival and we'll see if that materializes. As seasoned travelers, we have experienced these type of delays before so they're not surprised; in fact some of the rough seas that we've ever experienced come in the Mediterranean.

We watched the very energetic performance by the Spanish entertainers, and they received a resounding standing ovation at the end.  While it's not my style or preference for entertainment. I have to admit they were very skilled and energetic and crowd pleasing. Afterwards, we elected to go see movie in the Wajang theater called The Guilt Trip starring Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand about a son who invites his mother on a cross country road trip. The chemistry between the two of them is quite good and the humor is subtle but really good. In the course of doing this road trip both the son and the mother learn things about themselves And each other, and it made for an interesting storyline.

 

After the movie were returned to our stateroom and there was a little bit of motion to the ocean and the outside decks were blocked off. We have a late tour start tomorrow morning, so we'll be able to sleep in just a little bit longer before going on the Holland America excursion that we are booked on in Cagliari.

I'll end today's blog with  strong recommendation for one to visit Tunisia, which I have to admit that I was ignorant about in many ways. They are a country rich in ancient culture, and there is much to explore and learn here. In fact, for all three of the Islamic countries that we visited, I would return without hesitation.