Goin' to the big D...and I don't mean Dallas

Day 1 -
Amman to Damascus.
Three backpacks, two countries, two weeks, two adults, and one child.
Left ACOR in snow and took a taxi to Abdali station where we caught a service (shared) taxi to Damascus without a problem. Rode with only one other passenger, a Syrian guy, as we took up the whole back seat of the car. I had forgotten that service taxi's also pick up freight to take across the border. On the outskirts of Amman our driver stopped along the side of the road behind a pickup truck and put something in the trunk of the car.
Crossed the border into Syria without incident and were dropped in front of a tire shop on the outskirts of Damascus, about 3-4 hours later. The highlight of the border crossing was Noah signing his own entry document for Syria. He wrote a tiny N-O-A-H on his signature line. The official didn't bat an eye.
Caught a taxi to our hotel in Damascus and after arguing with the driver, we settled into our hotel. Note to self - always negotiate the price BEFORE getting into a cab in Syria and never rely on the driver to have change. Se la vie.
After a cartoon show for Noah (who was a trooper on the drive up), we headed to the National Museum in Damascus, which was a few short blocks from our hotel. Our stomachs were rumbling so we headed first to the vine covered museum cafe, which fortunately had q'awa ('Turkish' coffee) and cheese sandwiches. Perfect. The museum's collection is spectacular - in particular the Dura Europa synagogue with its beautiful frescos and the hypogeum from Palmyra with its eerie tombs. Great stuff, old building and systems. Amazing that the textiles (from Palmyra) still survive. (Textile room smelled like cat pee - maybe that's the secret.) A guard offered Noah a chair and he sat at an entrance taking tickets for a while. The conference room (?) was also amazing and the courtyards - beautiful.
We walked back to the hotel through the Al Takieh Al Suleimaniyeh mosque and the adjacent prayer hall and handicraft market. So stimulating - beautiful rugs, jewelry, and....cats.
Came back to the hotel to change a diaper and rest, and then headed out to dinner at Abu al Azz. The menu was ascertained by quizzing the waiter or reading the back of the kleenex box. We were seated on the third floor, after walking through an alley, through a door, through the kitchen, up the stairs, through a restaurant seating area and up two more flights of stairs to a Mi Tierra-like (restaurant in San Antonio, TX with lots of dangling twinkly lights) dining hall, complete with bedouin tent alcoves. Seated in a tent alcove, we dined on fattoush (salad with fried pita), muhammara (pepper and walnut dip), hummus with meat, and shish tawook (grilled chicken (yum - so good). We finished up with tea with mint. Stopped by Bekdach on our way back - a shop that specializes in Sahlab (warm rice milk goo with rose water), sahlab pudding, and sahlab ice cream with pistachios. Delish.