Mercure Grand Hotel Gammarth Tunis

... Marrakesh was fun getting lost in. The Djemaa El Fna, or square outside the medina souks, was busy, busy, busy. Its flute music, snake charmers, henna painters, food stands, and labyrinthine alleyways make it a fascinating place.
There is not much in Morocco as far as Roman Ruins are concerned but the color of the countryside more than made up for this.

Another great trip! We know we are so lucky.

Tunisia is definitely a different world and a world of
contradictions. Muslim and a mix of
modern&progressive and ancient&backwards. A former french colony so
both Arabic and French are spoken, with French appearantly preferred
by the younger generation. All the billboard images and adds were
very modern and European looking. We saw many traditionally garbed
and shawled women including a Barbur(sp) woman with a traditional blue
La Goulette, Tunisia cpandjy

... so we decided to splurge and take advantage of one of the beach resorts' off-season rates. Wow, was it fancy. After making a lot of jokes about being riff-raff & checking out our room and the gardens and the hotel's FIVE bars/restaurants (including one shisha bar, plus an outdoor barbeque-cafe), we headed down to the beach for a late afternoon swim & to watch the gorgeous sunset.

... drums Moroccan-style. Medi's wife is supposed to have a baby today, but it did not come yet, so he drove us to the airport this morning. Everyone there was so nice - I was sad to say goodbye. When we got to Tunis, we had to cram into a tiny cab to get to our hotel in Sidi bou Said. All the buildings are white with blue trim ...

... is blurry, but I have seen the guy on posters and flags all over town. Is it their National Day or an election? Who is he, the President, the Prime Minister or maybe a King? Do Muslims have Kings? The most bizarre however is that the film in the fountain steam in the huge roundabout in this foreign country is accompanied by Metallica's monster hit "Nothing Else Matters". The music is blasted out on what I assume is Tunisian manufactured loudspeakers. Enough said...

Back in August 2005, on part of our trip, we arrived in Istanbul. Whilst walking around, we came across a carpet store, and as we were there for a few days, we use to hang out there. One day when we were just hanging, we met a Canadian family and since then, Sandy, the head of the family has followed the travels of Uncle Davros. When we arrived back in London, he wrote to me, telling how horrible his ...

... so much to look at. Three hours later, we decided to leave. We jumped back on the tram, and along the way, we went through another part of the aqueduct. It was the biggest one both of us had seen. Back in town, we had one last shop around the medina, buying pottery and carpets as you do in Tunisia. Sadly, in the morning, we had to leave. But there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, our next trip is only a couple of months away, so at least we have something to look forward to