Into Syria and on to Damascus

Today we finally left those of the group that had just come to explore the Lebanon. The original plan was to say goodbye to them yesterday evening as their flight was at silly o'clock in the morning - well before we were scheduled to emerge for breakfast. However, there they were in the breakfast room where they had been for several hours - their flight to London had been cancelled because it was buried under a mountain of snow.

So we said goodbye to them again as we headed to Syria and its capitol Damascus. I'd visited Syria in 2008 as a part of my trip from London to Aqaba - mainly by train through Europe & Turkey and by road through Syria & Jordan. I was looking forward to revisiting Aleppo and Krak de Chevalier and to visiting Palmyra for the first time.

Roman Arch in Bazaar

Damascus is said to one of Islam’s great cities, a thriving modern metropolis that is filled with a myriad of mosques, bazaars and captivating back streets. The conservatism of the desert and of the Islamic faith have helped to preserve a sense of historic continuity in a city that during the 7th and 8th centuries was the centre of the Islamic world, and even today there are many memorials to the golden ages of Saladin and the Ottoman Turks.

We retraced our route through the Bekka Valley to the Lebanese border post where we had to disembark to show our face to the Emigration official and then through no-man's land, past a couple of miles of truck waiting to be processed into the Lebanon, to face the Syrian formalities. To our surprise, we didn't even have to get off the bus - the local guide took our passports and had them stamped - visa and all ! This rather upset our colonial cousins travelling with us who had paid good dollars (Aus, Canadian & US) for personal visas, only to be included on our free group visa !

Once in the city and checked into our hotel, we set off to explore the souk and old town. We marvelled at many ancient buildings and artifacts but the things that caught many people's attention was the garments openly on display : spangly belly dancing costumes and novelty underwear seemed to be the favourites : bra & panties made up of three bearded Father Christmases seemed to be quite out of place in a Muslim country.

Lunch was taken sat on little stools on the edge of the flow of humanity in one of the narrow streets : chicken, pickles, chips and gravy in a wrap : very tasty.

In total contrast, dinner was taken in a bright modern restaurant thronging with locals - but with men and women seeming to sit on separate tables.