Fall Vacation-Tunisia

Here are some highlights of our trip to Tunisia. We are staying in a resort about 1 1/2 hours south of Tunis, the capital. We are on the Mediterranean Sea and getting a good deal of rain and wind. The weather is supposed to clear by the end of the week! There are lots and lots of stories to tell, but I'll settle on a few pictures of the things we've seen.

Our hotel--with the blustery weather, we have not yet used the outdoor pool.

We are very happy though to have an indoor pool.

Decorative tiles can be found everywhere; blue seems to be the preferred color.

Tiled benches

Tiled grave plots

Otto and Luc are crossing a street in Hammamet, a town close to our hotel.

The cafes we saw had only men in them. We opted for a more "touristy" cafe since we saw some women in it.

Cafe interior

Sweet mint tea is the cheapest drink you can buy in a cafe--1 Tunisian Dinar, about 50 cents. I had a really good one yesterday, but the tea I ordered today at a cafe in another town was too strong and not as good.

The medina of Hammamet, the old section of the town, has very narrow streets with white walls (to reflect the summer heat) and blue trim around windows and doors (to keep away the mosquitoes and flies). The medina is full of shops with shop owners trying to guess your nationality (we are either German, French, Swiss or Belgian) and selling the same thing to tourists--leather products, jewelry, spices and porcelain. You need to know how to bargain because there are no fixed prices.

The doors are a treat to see since they all have their own type of decoration.

The knockers on the door are two hands which indicates that a family lives here.

We visited a museum that gave a history of the area. On the roof top we could look over the town of Hammamet. To the right of Otto you can see the mosque above the other rooftops.

The rooftops are interesting--place to hang laundry, to leave your junk, or to sit. The sea is in the distance.

Another view of the medina

The market's specialties are not hard to find--spices

Olives and capers (in the foreground)

Olive oil--so common it gets sold in water bottles

Taking a break at the market to eat a clementine

Back at the hotel, the meals are taken in a large dining room. The desserts stand out and often have some nuts (often almonds), honey or fruit in them.

Dates are a daily staple as are grapes and pomegranates. The large dish in front of the dates is a caramel cream. I like it, but the kids don't.