An evening in Bizerte
After a sleep we walked through the port where there was still not much going on and quickly got a shared taxi into town. We managed to find the old harbour which is now cut off from the sea by a low bridge preventing anything but small boats entering. It should have been picturesque – small painted boats, cafes, old city walls gently lit up – but there was so much litter everywhere – in the water on the land and the smells were not just food! After a while we were picked up a “guide” – Mohammed – who first walked us through the Medina – a warren of interconnecting houses. He explained about the door knocker shaped like Fatima’s hand, one for one family and two for a two family house. Many doors were very old and studded with various Islamic symbols such as lamps. We got shown into the Hamman – ladies in the morning, men in the afternoon – the plumbing looked medieval. There were different areas in the Medina – Andalusian, Turkish Tunisian etc and different mosques as well. Finally our Tour finished on top of the walls of the Old Town where Mohamed fleeced us royally – however there was a lot we would not have seen on our own.

We then strolled to the “Ship” restaurant in the Old Harbour. The bliss of AC! We had Tunisian salads that were VERY spicy and then couscous dinners – lovely food. Getting a taxi back out of town was not easy as they were all coming into town full up – but we managed eventually.