Day 8: Tunis, Tunisia
Our port today was Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. The port for Tunis is actually in La Goulette, which is about 20 miles away. We signed up for the free tour of Carthage and Sidi Bou Said, which are in the suburbs, so we never actually set foot in Tunis.
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| Map of Tunis area |
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| Tunisians and friendly camels welcoming us |
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| View of the port area in LaGoulette |
Our tour was a caravan of buses led by a police escort.
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| One of our escorts |
The area between LaGoulette and Carthage was mostly well to do suburban residences.
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| On our way to Carthage |
Tourists are a pretty rare site in Tunisia so almost everyone we passed was smiling and waving at us.
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| Welcome to Tunisia |
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| More of the suburbs of Tunis |
Our first stop was the site of the ancient city of
Carthage. Most of what was Carthage is now covered by suburbs of Tunis.
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| The former harbor of Carthage, now a suburb |
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| More suburbs where Carthage used to be |
Eventually, we arrived at the
Baths of Antoninus at Carthage. These were built after the Romans destroyed the original city of Carthage and built a Roman city, beginning in about 146 BC. Several shots of the baths are below.
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| Overview of the baths |
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| The Tunisian Presidential Palace is in the background |
From the baths, we drove to the National Museum at Carthage, passing a few sites along the way.
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| The mosque at Carthage, which is actually of recent vintage |
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| An old aquaduct |
Next we went to Byrsa Hill, site of the National Museum.
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| St. Louis Cathedral, next to the Museum |
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| View of Tunis (or the suburbs) from Byrsa Hill |
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| Remains of mosaics in the National Museum |
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| Inside the museum |
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| A vendor outside the museum |
Next, we went to
Sidi Bou Said, an old artisan town near Carthage.
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| Rockin the Kasbah in Sidi Bou Said |
Sidi Bou Said is famous for it's white buildings with blue trim, which makes for nice photos.
There were lots of orange trees with lots of oranges, but I'm told they're pretty inedible.
We then headed back to the ship, through more suburban areas. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to go into the city of Tunis by the time we got back to the ship, so we'll have to save that for another time.
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| More suburbs |
At night the ship's entertainers did a Beatles show by the pool. I don't think the surviving Beatles have to worry about the competition....
Day 9: Cagliari, Sardinia
Today we stopped at
Cagliari (pronounced similar to "calorie"), the main city on the island of Sardinia, which is an autonomous region of Italy. We decided to take the ship's free tour, which was a bus ride (with stops) around Cagliari.
Our first stop was the Basilica of
Our Lady of Bonaria, which was mostly destroyed during World War II and wasn't completely reconstructed until 1998. It's famous for having been visited by Pope Benedict in 2008.
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| Exterior of the Basilica of Our Lady of Bonaria |
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| Inside the church |
We then drove to top of one of the hills on which Cagliari is built, to take in a view of the city.
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| View of Cagliari |
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| A panoramic view |
A lot of the city, which has a population of about 150,000 (and 400,000 in the metropolitan area), was destroyed during World War II, so most of the neighborhoods consist of postwar buildings.
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| Typical modern neighborhood |
Our next stop was the historical center of the town, which was largely spared during World War II.
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| Bastione di Santa Catarina, dating from the 16th Century |
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| View of Cagliari from Bastione di Santa Catarina |
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| Another view of Cagliari, with our ship in port |
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| Another section of the city wall |
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| Some renovation needed |
Eventually, we arrived at the
Cagliari Cathedral, which dates from the 13th century, although the facade was rebuilt in the 1930's.
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| Facade of Cagliari Cathedral |
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| Interior of the Cathedral |
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| Cathedral ceiling |
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| Mausoleum of Martin I of Sicily |
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| A crypt in the cathedral |
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| A square near the cathedral |
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| Older housing with modern conveniences |
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| Loosely translated: "Graffiti is degradant" |
Our next stop was the
Torre dell'Elefante (Tower of the Elephant), which was built in 1307. It's so named for a sculpture of an elephant on the side of the tower.
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| The elephant is on the left, standing on a ledge |
From there, we walked down a pedestrian street to the commercial center of Cagliari.
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| Downtown Cagliari |
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| A boulevard near the port |
