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Zittau sits very close to the border with Poland and Czechia. It's a lovely rural German city but what great timing for us. We took the train from Gorlitz which was simple, cheap and quick. Then we walked the 20 minutes down to the main square where we were staying. On arrival they were setting up for what looked like a German Christmas market in May. All was soon to be revealed, but first we checked into the Hotel Sonnewhich was a wonderful birthday treat for Russ and a class above our normal travel digs! It's a beautifully restored building full of quirky works of art and we absolutely loved it there. Art themes continue all around the city. Near the hotel is Grüne Strasse where the old communist housing blocks have been painted eclectic colours ... read more

Zgorzelec is an interesting town on the bank of the river which forms the border between Poland and Germany. Prior to World War II it was actually a suburb of its German neighbour Görlitz, but when the borders were redrawn it found itself part of Poland! In all honesty, there's not an awful lot to see and do there, but it is definitely cheaper to base yourself there and walk over to Görlitz, which is what the next entry will be about! We stayed in the comfortable url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/pl/banapart-loft.en-gb.html?aid=1769628&sid=d4b4e7446b3417d12e795b84674ca42d;label=postbooking_confpageBanApart apartment, but if three floors of stairs is too much for you, you might want to look elsewhere! We actually liked Zgorzelec though. The weather wasn't brilliant but that meant it wasn't too hot to wander around. The riverside path is lovely and gives great views over to ... read more

After nearly four hours on a bus, we tried to get a taxi to our hotel. The drivers were asking about four times what it was going to cost on Uber so that's what we did. Our driver was quite chatty once he found out that we spoke Spanish. He bemoaned the lack of investment in the city and called it feo - ugly. We thought tatty would have been a better adjective. For the final four nights of our trip we had chosen to stay somewhere a bit more comfortable - url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/cr/radisson-europa.en-gb.html?aid=1769628&sid=ab9aa21dab04cda1b948410f9013a650&all_sr_blocks=35060709_240313887_2_41_0;checkin=2023-03-16;checkout=2023-03-17;dest_id=350607;dest_type=hotel;dist=0;group_adults=2;group_children=0;hapos=1;highlighted_blocks=35060709_240313887_2_41_0;hpos=1;matching_block_id=35060709_240313887_2_41_0;no_rooms=1;req_adults=2;req_children=0;room1=A%2CA;sb_price_type=to... read more

Jaco was not what we expected at all. For some reason we had anticipated something akin to Benidorm in Spain. Instead we found it much more closely aligned to Patong in Phuket, Thailand, but with vastly inflated prices! We didn't really like the place, to be honest, but we made the most of a bad job as we always do. From our luxury accommodation in Montezuma we were in a true backpackers' hostel and my feedback and criticism of their attitude (the guy on reception when we had a problem didn't speak English and got very grumpy when he found out we could do it all in Spanish!) and lack of hot water (despite the electrical contraption being in the room it is, apparently, not included in the price!) did not go down well. Enough of ... read more

The bus dropped us off more or less right outside our first night's accommodation, url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/cr/boyeros.html?aid=1769628&sid=33ed6a6cedba792971fa750dfa22d234&sb=1&src=hotel&src_elem=sb&error_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fhotel%2Fcr%2Fboyeros.en-gb.html%3Faid%3D1769628%26sid%3D33ed6a6cedba792971fa750dfa22d234%26atlas_src%3Dsr_iw_btn%3Bcheckin%3D2023-02-14%3Bcheckout%3D2023-02-15%3Bdest_id%3D-1107872%3Bdest_type%3Dcity%3Bdist%3D0%3Bgroup_adults%3D2%3Bgroup_children%3D0%3Bno_rooms%3D1%3Broom1%3DA%252CA%3Bsb_price_type%3Dtotal%3Btype%3Dtotal%3Bucfs%3D1%26%26&highlighted_hotels=1368324&hp_sbox=1&origin=hp&hp_avform=1&do_availability_check=on&checkin_year=2023&checkin_month=3&checkin_monthday=22&checkout_year=2023&checkout_month=3&checkout_monthday=23&group_adults=2&group_children=0&no_rooms=1&b_h4u_keep_filters=&from_sf=1#availability_targetHotel Boyeros.... read more