11 October, Saterday Tunis

Up at 07.30. Had a nice breakfast. We walked through the Avenue Bourghiba to the old Medina. There we first went to the copper man, who should have finished the plate we ordered yesterday. From there we walked through the narrow streets of the Medina towards the great old Zitouna Mosque. It was not completely open but we were allowed to the central square. There we met an extremely nice guy, who showed us around. He then took us to the "palace d'Oriënt". We were led to the rooftop, a terrace, where you could see the whole city. We could see 3 other palaces and several mosques. After that we went to the National Library which used to be a Koran school for children between 3 and 5 years old. The Tunisian man who led us around said he did it for free, but..... his family had a parfumery shop where we were kindly invited and had tea. In the meanwhile we got an explination about different types of parfumes. And of course we could buy them too! Ria said to our guide that she liked carpets and the man immediatly took us to a carpet manufacturer who also sells the carpets. We ended up with 2 beautiful carpets, a Berber one and a silk one. After tough negociations and payment, the owner took us to a restaurant somewhere in the Medina where only the locals come. We had daurade, couscous, salad, water and of course minth tea. The owner of the carpet shop came back as we were finished and took us to a taxi place. The taxi brought us to the El bardo museum,, famous for its mosaics. A long taxi drive for 2.70 dinar. the museum was loaded with mosaics fom all over Tunisia. Mainly from Roman times. They had all a bit earthy, brownish colours. At the end of the afternoon we went back to the hotel with a taxi, who asked us 7 dinar, which he did not get. We bought some postcards, books and mineral water. And had minth tea, coffee and juice on a terrace just in front of the hotel. In the hotel we took a nap, a shower and did our emails. At eight we had dinner again. The competitiors had all done nice things: the Medina, El Bardo, the beach, Carthage, Sidid Bou Said etc. After a few hours everybody went to bed.