37.16.422N 9.52.817E

We decided that as we were weather bound (waiting for the wind and then the swell to die down), we would visit the capital Tunis and go around the Bardo museum. The guides in Bulla Regis and Dougga kept mentioning that the best bits were taken away and displayed in the Bardo museum.

We caught a taxi to the bus station out of town and managed to buy a bus ticket to Tunis. The buses only had the Arabic destinations on them, fortunately the bus ticket had the word Tunis in both latin and Arabic hence we matched up the squiggles and waited by the right bus (we hoped). The ticket officer came out and was very insistent we stand in one particular spot. The locals all crowded round but we were not in a brilliant spot to get on the bus first. Clearly our time in the ski lift queues in Italy would come in useful for getting on the bus. About 5 minutes later, the same ticket officer pulled us out of the queue to an empty bus bay, the bus pulled up straight away and we got on second (the locals were very quick!). Now we understood why we had to act as a decoy and stand in the “not so good spot”. Very friendly people these Tunisians!

We arrived in Tunis, caught a tram for a couple of stops and walked into the museum. Then we walked out to get the entrance ticket and finally back in to explore. We had arrived quite early in the morning so there were not too many tourist groups to avoid.

The museum was absolutely full of very well preserved and absolutely massive mosaics with lots of small intricate details. Many took up whole walls or floors. Unfortunately the section on Bulla Regis was closed as they are extending the museum.

On the return journey the ticket officer made sure we got on the right bus (by this time we recognised the Arabic for Bizerte) and we arrived home in the afternoon.

Below are some pictures of the mosaics.