We departed our hotel Val D’Anfa at 10:00 and Chahine drove us to the Casablanca airport which took significantly less than the hour we’d been told to expect.
At the Mohammed V airport we said our farewells to Chahine and thanked him profusely for his wonderful efforts over these last two weeks, making our holiday in Morocco incredibly interesting by introducing us to a diversity of locations. The result was an amazingly enjoyable fortnight.
Checking in for our flight to Tunis all went according to plan except that we missed currency exchange office, which unbeknown to us was located in an area outside the main terminal. We had an hour and a half before boarding our flight which gave us an opportunity to wander around the duty-free area, and yet the only purchase we made was a one litre bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin.
The flight to Tunis took just on three hours and had to follow a track that didn’t venture into Algerian air-space.
Our course took us up across the Mediterranean to the coast of Spain and then we flew eastwards towards the Balearic Islands, passing over Minorca. After having flown over the city of Cuglieri in Sardinia, we headed down to Tunisia and landed at close to 16:00 Tunis time.
Our flight path from Casablanca to Tunis
There was a very long wait to get through customs but after forty minutes of slow progress, we were through and to our delight, we realised in the queue, just across from us were Chris and Diana, our travelling companions who had just arrived from Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Corinne, Jak, Chris and Diana, meeting up at Tunis airport
The four of us made contact with our Native Eye representative Ali, and then were driven in taxis to our hotel Palais Bayram, where we’ll stay for the next three nights.
The hotel was originally a palace and our room is more like a one bedroom, five star palatial suite from the mid to late 19th century. The furnishings are mostly antique and the six metre high ceiling is decorated with the most elaborate painting and reliefs.
Our hotel room, Palais Bayram, Tunis
Our hotel room, Palais Bayram, Tunis
We had dinner in the hotel dining room and ended up being overloaded with delectable food, it being far more than we could possibly eat.
Tomorrow, we have most of the day in Tunis and are likely to visit ancient Carthage in the afternoon. How exciting!