Day 9 - Monday January 26, 2026 - Tunis Tunisia

The typical doors of Tuni

I started out at 8:30 this morning on a 9 hour excursion call Highlights of Tunis”.  Wayne, as usual, went on the included free tour.  

The Bardo Museum was our first stop and is the biggest museum in Tunis and has countless number of musaic pieces from excavations.  The quality and rarity of these mosaic pieces is fantastic. The museum has one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world.

The museum is located in the former Turkish Palace when they ran the country.  

All of these were rescued from archaeological digs 

The ceilings are original to the palace

The colors are wonderful 

Amazing ceiling 

A close up of one of the tiles

What a ceiling 

Another ceiling I couldn’t resist 

More ceilings original to the palace

This special room houses a famous mosaic of Virgil (below)

The doors of Tunisia.  

Our next stop was at the Medina which is the historic, and typically old section of a city in North Africa.  It is a dense, maze-like layout of narrow, often pedestrian streets.  There are souls or markets, mosques, palaces inside.  On the way to the Medina we walked across the Kasbah Square with their World War II Monument to their unknown soldiers 

The mosque at the entrance to the Medina

Our guide led us through a labyrinth of streets all under one big roof.  It was full with shop after shop.  If there was one jewelry shop, there were 80 without exaggeration.  After a tour of what I thought was the entire Medina, we stopped to shop at a co-operative that our guide trusted.  They sold plates and mosaics as well as rugs.  I skipped the rug demonstration and sales as I had been through that in Istanbul and stuck with negotiating on the plates.    

Pictures from inside the Medina.

Our guide pointed out the Star of David above the door.  He says the oldest synagogue in the world is in Tunisia 

This man was selling his pastries 

Where we ended in the Medina to look at handmade ceramics and rugs

We left the Medina and headed for the bus on the way to lunch.  That’s when the weather turned from poor to really shitty.  

Lunch was at a restaurant with a set menu and while the food looked good, I passed.  I had a few pieces of bread that were on the table and stopped there.  After my Egyptian food experience and time spent in the bathroom, I’m not ready to test North Africa food again.  Besides lunch was couscous and chicken.  The couscous is a hard pass.

From there, in what was still pouring rain, was a stop at the ruins of Carthage.  Carthage was founded in 814 BC by the Phoenicians.  At its height it was one of the largest, wealthiest and most powerful cities in the world dominating the Mediterranean.  

The ruins of Carthage in pouring rain.  We’re told this was the latrines.  I couldn’t tell in all the rain

What’s left of the ruins of Carthage 

The Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome destroyed the entire city.  It was later rebuilt by Julius Caesar and became a major Roman city.  

My high school Latin teacher would be very proud that I visited. 

Our last stop was in the town of Sidi Bou Said.  I’m told that if you have been to Santorini Greece, it’s similar.  All of the buildings, the entire town, is whitewashed a bright white and the windows and doors are painted a beautiful blue.   If the sun had been shining it would have been an even prettier sight.  As it was, it was cold, but at least the rain had stopped.   I took my few pictures and got back on the bus.

It was 5:10 and we had a “back on board “time of 5:00 pm.  But Viking won’t leave an entire bus load and besides there were two more Viking buses still in Sidi Bou Said when we left.  

It felt  good to get out of my wet clothes and warm again.

Well due to high winds and bad weather, we will not see Algiers or Morocco.  Instead of a sea day tomorrow, we are heading for Cagliari Sardinia.  When it’s not in your control, you roll with it.  And right now we’re rolling with the weather forecast and the wind.    It’s someplace new. For me so it’s all good. 

The day after, we have a sea day as the captain steers us for Palma Majorca under the coral of Spain.  And then we’re back to our original schedule of Cadiz Spain 

Very tired right now.  12,121 steps.  It’s shower time and then I hope to pass out while the ship rocks me to sleep.