Clearly staying in a monastery/convent agrees with us, as I had the best sleep I have had in ages. Debs watched over by Jesus, had an equally good night.
Breakfast wasn't until 9am this morning so, waking early we had a look at the panoramic view from the convent and then, morning service having finished, we had a look round the ancient church. We were given a brief tour by one of the staff who recited the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic to us. The ancient church was very beautiful with a collection of priceless icons. Unfortunately cameras aren't allowed so no pictures.
After a walk round it was time for breakfast, where we were joined by Father Thomas. It's not every day you breakfast with a priest. He wished us well on our journey and then having loaded our bikes we headed down the steep hill to the village.
The wind certainly wasn't as strong as yesterday, but there was no chance of us getting away with a wind-free journey. Taking a few photos in the village, we headed downwards to the main Damascus road. The descent and less powerful wind meant that we covered the first 8km in rapid time and we were soon rejoining the motorway. Better still the motorway headed downhill as well.
The road soon levelled out and the wind started to once again play its part. Perhaps driven on by the fact that we were going to be in Damascus later, we managed to maintain a reasonable speed.
The end of the higher ground was marked, rather alarmingly, by a sign warning of dangers for the next 8km.
Despite the fact that it was fairly steep, we never did spot any of the dangers. Had we not been riding into a headwind, we would have been going a lot faster, so perhaps it would have seemed a lot riskier.
A brief break at a garage brought a bit of light relief when one of the staff wanted to take my bike to be pressure washed. Personally I think he just wanted to have a ride, because the cleaning job was rubbish. Thanks to the rest of the staff I wasn't required to pay, despite the best attempts by the lad who had taken the bike to be cleaned. Payment in Syria often seems to come in the form of having to take a picture of the staff and then showing it to them. Perhaps they don't have cameras, or at least they are very expensive.
Rejoining the road, we were soon in the outskirts of Damascus, where once again we navigated the city traffic with more ease than expected. Cities may not be the ideal place for a bicycle, but we are certainly getting pretty good at riding through them.
Thanks to a city map that we had been given in Hama, we found our way to the right part of the old city and set about trying to find the 'Damascus hostel'. We later found out that hostels aren't allowed a sign, which explains why although we were in the right place, we couldn't actually see the hostel. After getting some help from a neighbour who told us we were in the right place, we were let into a nicer place than the outside suggested. We are staying in what must be the hostel's penthouse suite, because it certainly isn't cheap, but then the room doesn't really make you think hostel. We are in a large oval shaped room that juts out from the old city walls, which is pretty cool. The hostel also has a fireman's pole and rope ladder that you can use to get down to street level. I will give these a go at a later date, Debs, probably sensibly, isn't so keen!
Going for a brief stroll to get our bearings, what we saw of Damascus looks great. Tomorrow should be a big sightseeing day, although we have to make another trip to an immigration office to check our visa status. We are still concerned about showing up at the border with an expired visa, no matter what the office in Aleppo told us.
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