Day 165 Syria 2/3/2011, Damascus. A wonderfully over the top mosque and a lot of blog updating.

We had a bit of a slow start this morning, in fact by the time I had written yesterday's blog and we had sorted our photos it was nearly midday.

Our first port of call was the post office to get some stamps for Debs postcards. Before every one starts wondering where the postcards from me are, you are reading them! The post office had a large queue outside which, knowing no better, we joined. Helpfully some of the people in the queue told us to push past into the building. It appears that if you just want stamps, you ignore the queue and jump in when an opportunity presents itself. Mission complete, we wandered into the old city just in time to get caught up in the crowds of children who had finished school for the day.

Part of the joy of Syrian cities seems to be just wandering through the streets. On the way to have a look at the citadel, we encountered a trades person on a horse and cart, selling oil while his compatriots walked through the streets sounding a horn and shouting about their wares.

On the way to the citadel we once again found ourselves outside the Sayyida Ruqayya Mosque. As it wasn't time for prayers we were able to go in. The mosque was only built in 1985 so compared to the rest of the old city it is very young. What it loses in age however, it makes back by having the most over the top interior decoration we have seen in Syria. Much of the ceiling is like looking at the inside of a mirror ball and the walls that aren't shimmering silver are highly decorated. We are very glad that we didn't pass up on the opportunity to go inside.

The citadel is currently closed for renovations and will be for the next three months, so we had to content ourselves with a walk round the outside. What we could see looked quite impressive, so it was a bit of shame it was closed.

We would never claim to have seen all the city, but we think that we have had a pretty good look at the main sights. Damascus is a fascinating place, but we can't help but think that we preferred Aleppo. Perhaps it is simply because Aleppo was our first experience of Syria.

The blog is finally up to date so I hope everyone enjoys reading it. With any luck it won't be so long before we get the chance to use the internet again. Back on the road tomorrow bound for the amphitheatre at Bosra.