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.

Day 164 Syria 1/3/2011, Damascus. Souks and a very grand mosque.

We couldn't have picked a better day to be seeing more of the sights as we awoke to lovely weather.

We started the day walking inside the old city walls from Bab ash-Sharqi, deep into the narrow streets of the ancient Christian quarter. Crossing over Sharia Bab Touma, we followed the road through beautiful vine-covered streets lined with small shops.

Briefly stopping to watch a metal worker hammering delicate silver wire into intricate patterns on a brass plate, we arrived outside the Umayyad Mosque.

The Umayyad Mosque is one of Islam's most important buildings and its first great mosque. The mosques we have visited so far in Syria have been attractive, but have lacked the beauty and scale of their Turkish and Iranian counterparts. Stopping at the humorously titled 'putting on special clothes room', Debs donned her hooded robe and we entered the courtyard. Our first stop was the Mausoleum of Saladin, adversary of the Western crusaders; a small, understated, domed topped building, filled at the time with Japanese tourists. Having had a brief look at the tomb and taken a sneaky photo, we headed into the main courtyard of a truly beautiful mosque.

The front of the prayer hall is covered with a huge gold and green mosaic as is all 37m of the western wall. Within the courtyard are three domes, the Al-Mal (money) dome, Al-Sa'at (clocks) dome and a dome over the ablutions fountain in the middle.

The main prayer hall is quite understated, but contains the shrine of John the Baptist, which contains his head. I am sure I have visited other places where his head is supposed to be elsewhere in the world, so he definitely got about!

On the Eastern side of the main courtyard we followed the throngs of people into the shrine of Hussein. It became a bit of a pushing contest as the building was full of Shiite Muslims, mainly Iranians, all desperate to touch the Shrine. Hussein is the son of Ali who is regarded as the founder of Shiism.

Leaving the Umayyad Mosque we visited an attractive Madrassa (Islamic school) and then managed to time, rather badly, arriving outside Sayyida Ruqayya Mosque just as the call to prayer was sounding. Being a Persian style, Shiite mosque, the area was filled with black clad women heading inside. Unable to go in, we contented ourselves with people watching.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the streets of the Souk which, perhaps because we have seen so many, didn't hold our interest as much as the ones we have visited elsewhere in the country. From what we have seen, the Damascus souks are very similar to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. Full of tourist friendly goods and lacking the atmosphere of the souks of Aleppo and Homs. We did however manage to find a small Fez for Toad or as I should now refer to him, al-Toad.

Returning to the Hostel, Debs had a nap while I went and had a rather successful haircut. The difference it makes when the barber speaks English is amazing.

With the hostels internet not working, we took the laptop to an internet café and finally got some photos and blogs uploaded. Hopefully I will get some more uploaded tomorrow, the next internet probably won't be until Amman in Jordan.

By the time we had finished in the internet café it was getting late, so we went to dinner at Haretna Bab Touma and had a really good meal. The portion sizes were enormous and the restaurant was packed with people. We were already uncomfortably full when the waiter brought over a huge fruit bowl and ice cream, with compliments from the restaurant. With overly full stomachs we returned to the hotel, watched a bit of TV and then fell asleep.