Day 167 Syria 4/3/2011, As-Suwayda – Bosra ash-Sham. 17.07miles/27.45km, 1hr33minutes, Av 10.9mph.

Just because you pay more for a hotel doesn't mean you sleep any better. Debs had a fitful night and I was kept awake with a bad sore throat, at least we had breakfast to look forward to. If only it hadn't been a total abomination, tea made with a Lipton's teabag in Syria, the locals would probably throw it at them! As for the omelette, at least that's what we assumed it was, that must have been knocking around for a few days as you couldn't get a knife through it. All in all, we can't say in this case that we got what we paid for.

We left the hotel in beautiful sunshine and set off towards the town of Bosra. Rather than take the main road, we wanted to take a more direct, minor road that I had spotted on the map. The only problem with taking the minor roads in Syria is that the road signs are normally only in Arabic, so we have to rely on being pointed in the right direction at every junction. In this region however, it seems that the signs are in English as well. Taking a bit of a leap of faith while we were cycling out of As-Suwayda, we turned off the main road and found ourselves on the right route.

It was much nicer to be cycling along a quiet road, passing small villages and having people wave and shout hello. In the small village of Ara we were beckoned over by a man to join him for a cup of tea. Samier was an interesting character who spoke excellent English, having lived in San Francisco for 9 years. He was extremely well travelled and was currently working as an English teacher/translator, plus he makes very good tea! We had the luxury of not being in a hurry today, so it was nice to be able to sit and chat for a while. After a quick photo and an exchange of emails, we continued on to Bosra.

With about 10km to go a motorcyclist slowed beside us and started chatting away. He told me he was a policeman who lived in Bosra and for the remainder of the journey to town he rode alongside. He then became an impromptu tour guide as we cycled through the town. We are not certain but we think he wanted us to go and stay with him, the only issue being that it was early and we really wanted to see the town. Showing us the way to the citadel, he introduced us to a friend who said that we could stay the night in a nearby restaurant. Realising that we weren't going to be staying with him, he wished us well and left for his home.

According to the guide book that we have, there is only one hotel in Bosra and it is an expensive five star. Finding cheaper accommodation was a bonus as we had been considering having a look round and then heading out of town. Once again the room wasn't as cheap as it might have been, but it is a lot better than we were expecting.

Having dumped our gear we went to have a look at the citadel. The main reason to visit Bosra is its enormous Roman Amphitheatre, one of the best preserved in the world.

The Theatre was built early in the 2^nd century AD and up until the 20^th century it was buried under sand. The citadel which surrounds it was a later construction built during the crusades. If like us you ignore the signs to the theatre and wander round the citadel at random, it is quite possible to miss the giant theatre at its heart. The outer walls are a warren of dark passageways and multiple staircases lead off into the gloom. In fact some of the passageways are so dark that we came close to falling down a staircase!

Still having failed to find the theatre we encountered a large group of young people gathered in a circle chanting and clapping, while others danced to some musicians. We have no idea what was going on, perhaps it is a Friday thing. When we started to encounter people dressed as Romans, we began to wonder even more.

Walking into the theatre was an amazing experience, the scale and state of preservation is awesome. Timing our arrival at the same time as a few hundred children (all boys) wasn't perfect, but apart from the noise it didn't diminish the experience.

Having seen the theatre we headed out to have a look at the rest of the town. The place is like a living museum, as people have built there homes into parts of the ancient city. Large basalt columns line the stone streets and Roman arches seemingly sprout out of newer houses. It is a great place to spend a few hours wandering round.

Back at the restaurant/guesthouse we had huge buffet lunch and then went for a rest. All being well, we will be in Jordan tomorrow. Our last full day in Syria has been a good one.

Day 166 Syria 3/3/2011, Damascus – As-Suwayda. 66.77miles/107.45km, 6hr15minutes, Av 10.6mph.

Having both had a good nights sleep, we were ready to face a day on the road. We were soon loaded and ready to go, it was just a shame that we missed saying goodbye to some of the Hostels great staff. Unfortunately Roger wasn't there before we left and sadly we missed one of the long term guests, Philip. If you happen to see the blog guys, take care and best wishes.

As we joined the main road we made a brief stop outside the city walls to take a picture of the hostel. Seeing our room from the outside made us glad that we had stayed there, it was certainly a better location than the main backpacker area.

Getting out of Damascus was pretty painless and we were soon on the main road bound for As-Suwayda. For the main part the road was flat and the winds that had plagued us before were absent. It certainly wasn't the most scenic route though, most of the land use appeared to be military, so no photos.

Having covered nearly 60km by midday we stopped for lunch outside a shop. The owner rather kindly got us a chair each and then found an old table for us to use. Our bikes caused a great deal of interest with three of the local children, so after lunch I sat and took a picture of them, which they readily posed for. Waving goodbye we headed back onto the road.

We had planned to go a reasonable distance today and then find somewhere to free camp, leaving us with an easy ride to Bosra tomorrow. Despite the large areas of military land there were plenty of places to camp along the road. Today though we encountered a different problem, we couldn't find any water. The road wasn't exactly littered with shops, but what there were didn't appear to sell water. This has been a bit of a problem throughout Syria, we will have to get in the habit of setting off with more than we need, just in case.

With no water available, we decided that we would have to try and make it to As-Suwayda, and find a hotel. The only problem with carrying on, was that it would mean riding over 100km and since passing the 70km mark the road had started to climb.

Stopping for a drink at a small restaurant, I lightened Debs mood by losing one of my gloves, which wouldn't have been funny but for the fact that I was wearing it! Hilarity over, at least on Debs part, I just felt like a plum, we returned to the road.

The last 30km of the day were tough, less tough for Debs who got a short push up a hill by a team of road workers, it was a relief to arrive in the town. As is now to be expected the town centre was uphill. All the information I had regarding a hotel was a letter H marked on the map. With the help of several locals we were given directions and went of in search of what was bound to be an expensive hotel.

As we headed through the town a guy shouted across the road, asking if we needed any help. Going over to speak to him, he told us that we could probably stay at a nearby church for a small fee. This sounded promising, so following his directions we located the church, but unfortunately it didn't have any free rooms.

The hotel when we got there was as expected very expensive, but we had little choice as it was getting dark and we were both shattered. On a plus point we have WiFi that works, and breakfast is included, plus the beds feel very comfortable.

We decided to forgo the hotel restaurant and headed into town and had a very filling meal in the aptly named 'Yummy House'. It will be an early night for us both.

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.

Day 163 Syria 28/2/2011, Damascus. A trip to the visa office and a lot of sightseeing.

No idea why, but we woke quite early this morning. Breakfast was the fairly standard middle eastern affair of flat bread, olives, hummus, preserves and eggs with plenty of tea or coffee to wash it down with. By the time we had eaten our fill we were ready to face the day.

Stepping out into a fairly sunny and warm day, we headed to the visa office via the northern walls of the old city. The route was fascinating passing through narrow, ancient and often dilapidated streets.

Eventually leaving the old city behind via one of its ancient gates, we headed into the throngs of people and traffic that seemed to fill every space outside the walls. We were nearly at the office when the heavens opened, so much for the good weather. Fortunately it was only a shower, but the skies did look a little grey.

Finding the right room in the visa and immigration offices was a little challenging. There were people everywhere thrusting pieces of paper at the officers and our somewhat bewildered looks prompted somebody to point us towards an office. Going into the office didn't make things any clearer, there were just as many people in there. Eventually approaching one of the officers, we were informed once again that we definitely have 30 days, and we couldn't extend our visas until that period was over. This was what we wanted to hear, assuming the border guards have been told the same thing, we won't incur any problems.

Leaving the office the rain started again, this time heavier than before. We were invited into a bookshop to take shelter from the rain and given directions to a nearby mosque that we wanted to visit. The rain didn't last long and the grey skies gave way to a bit more blue.

Leaving the bookshop we headed to the Takiyya as-Suleimaniyya Mosque. The mosque was designed by the same person who created the Suleimaniye Mosque in Istanbul, which is my personal favourite of the Istanbul mosques. Like its counterpart in Turkey the mosque was undergoing some extensive renovations, so we were unable to go in. We could however walk round the craft market that now inhabits the courtyard walls and old Madrassa (Islamic school). The complex is certainly not on the scale of the one in Turkey but it had some beautiful pieces of inlay work in the walls and the mosque itself was very attractive.

Returning to the old city, we walked along the start of Straight street and into Souq Medhat Pasha. Unlike the narrow streets of Aleppo's souks, this was a wide high ceilinged thoroughfare, with more expensive looking stores inset into the walls. Just off the souk we stopped to have a look at an attractive Khan (traders rest stop) and then turned off into a street selling spices and sweets. Midway along the street we came to Khan As-ad Pasha, a strikingly impressive structure built in 1752 with striped black and white walls and beautifully decorated domed ceilings.

Moving on from Khan As-ad Pasha we reached the Azem Palace. Built between 1749 and 1752 it was the private residence of the governor of Damascus, As'ad Pasha al-Azem. Now it is a truly beautiful building, housing a museum that contains a collection of the most hilariously bad mannequins we have ever seen. Strictly speaking it seems that photography within the palace rooms is not allowed, although some rooms have signs and others don't. Consequently we don't have many pictures and those we do have were taken surreptitiously. For us it was a shame that they didn't leave the building alone, looking round the beautifully decorated rooms would have been enough, without the distraction of historical re-enactments.

By now we were quite tired of walking round so we returned to the hostel, where we learned a couple of variations on the game of backgammon. Dinner was taken at one of the hostels recommended restaurants, which turned out to be no better than average. 'Old Street' restaurant was alright we suppose, but we have had a lot better, not to mention cheaper, elsewhere on our travels. We grabbed a few Lebanese beers on the way back to the hostel and settled in for the night. More sightseeing tomorrow.

Day 162 Syria 27/2/2011, Maalula–Damascus. 35.04miles/56.44km, 2hr54minutes, Av 12.1mph.

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.