Jeffrey Hellmers Travels: Tunisia Page 2

I allowed myself one fancy hotel, the spectacular Kasbah Hotel, built in the main fortress of Kairouan's old city. Fortunately for the western traveler, things are still quite cheap in Tunisia, as I'm sure accomodations of this quality would have cost four times as much in the United States.

The Kasbah Hotel, Kairouan

This is the Great Mosque of Kairouan, one of the oldest mosques in Islam. The bottom few rows of stones in the Minaret are original, from around 700 AD.

The Great Mosque, Kairouan

The Great Mosque, Kairouan

The Great Mosque, Kairouan

The Great Mosque, Kairouan

Kairouan has lots of great doors. This ostentation is a little unusual, since the norm in Islamic architecture is to have very simple exterior doors—for homes that is. The outside doors normally give no indication of the quality of the dwelling on the inside.

Another Kairouan door.

The Mosque of the Three Doors in Kairouan. I talked to these older gentelmen outside the mosque for a while. Often when wandering around an old middle eastern city, you aren't ever sure if you've found the site you're looking for or not. But every so often you get one with a name like "The Mosque of the Three Doors." When you find it, you know!

After a week in Tunisia, I had a day and a half in London. I spent the full day walking all over the city, stopping at a few sites, including the reconstructed Globe Theatre.

A mob of tourists at the Tower of London. I have no idea what kind of group this is. I got out of their way fast.

The White Tower, part of the Tower of London complex.

I went to an evening service at Westminster Abbey, which was a great way to experience the building. The choir was fantastic. I came back the next morning for a normal visit, checking out all the famous tombs, including Queen Elizabeth I, Chaucer, Dickens, Newton, and Darwin, and lots, lots more.

Trafalgar Square, the heart of London. Double Decker buses, big taxis, Big Ben, what more do you want from a London scene?

This is the Royal Albert Hall, in London. Among many other events, this venue houses the Proms, an annual musical event in London. On the Last Night of the Proms, the orchestra plays fun and well-known music, people dress in crazy costumes, sing along, pop ballons, and generally act un-English for a night. I'd love to go to that some day.