France
France is arguably the most culturally deep country in Europe (according to Rick Steves) and takes a lifetime to get to know but that's probably what keeps me coming back.
The cheapest ticket from The Netherlands to France was to Marseilles which is a very different place from the rest of the country due to the large immigrant population. Marseille was the closest we could get to Avignon (Provence) where we had an apartment for just under a week.
The high speed train (200 mph) goes from Marseille to Avignon in about 30 minutes. Avignon has a massive performing arts festival and rooms were booked so we left the day before it started and moved onto Lyon, the gastronomic capital of France and spent a couple of days there.
From Lyon we took the high speed train again to Paris where we spent the next three weeks. While there we day tripped Versailles and did an overnight in Normandy.
We flew from Paris to Italy.