Another 2 hour drive through the desert this time with signs leading to Iraq and Baghdad we arrived in Damascus. Damascus is a very large busy city split between the old town and the modern town which is largely bereft of beauty and short on sights. We drove round and round the modern city looking for somewhere to stay with parking and as usual it was only the large 5 star places which had car parks and after calling at 4 even those were all fully booked. Eventually we found a place in the suburbs where the embassies are situated which had parking and was actually only a short taxi ride into the Old City.

The old city streets are wonderful and we took a walking tour about of about 4k around the best of the sights. Straight Street is filled with tiny stores selling textiles, coffee, olive oil and spices all under cover of a domed ceiling. The souq is a haven of peace and tranquility and you can well imagine yourself there hundreds of years ago. There is none of the touristy pushy haggling as in the souq in Marrakesh you are just left alone to browse or offered a handful of cashew nuts or dates to sample. We walked all around within the old city walls culminating at the Umyyad Mosque which women are actually allowed to go in although we didn't go in ourselves as it was awash with tourists.

Whilst strolling the streets an old man sitting outside an antique shop asked me where we were from and he told us that after the second world war he had settled in Liverpool. As a boy of 14 he had helped the British Soldiers in Syria and then gone to Europe with them and was injured by a bomb in Italy. After the war he settled in Liverpool and dealt in textiles. He met and married a girl from Manchester in 1954 when she was 17 and he was 27 and after 3 years took her back to Alleppo where he came from. They had 7 children and returned to England every so often for her to visit her family. It couldn't have been easy for them at that time a Christian and a Muslim in fact when he went to meet the vicar he told him his name was 'George'. We spent a good hour chatting with him and drinking tea and he had the most fascinating story to tell and considering he was now 85 the most amazing memory. He wanted to take us back to Alleppo with him to meet his wife but we couldn't do that so he took our home address so that he could write to us when we get back to the U.K.!!

In contrast to the old city across the road from our hotel was a small restaurant/cafe in an afluent part of the new town full of the 'beautiful people' of Damascus, mostly women, dressed in up to the minute modern dress with their hair done and fully made up all smoking the 'hubble bubble' pipes!!

Syria was a most fascinating place and the friendliness an courtesy of the people was astounding they couldn't go out of their way more to welcome you to Syria.