Where to go...

There is quite a bit of adjusting to do to being single again after so long, but one thing I'm finding very difficult is planning trips. I know, I was just off on my own for months, but somehow thinking about where I want to go within Europe is very hard and I keep dismissing places that I otherwise wouldn't if I weren't planning to go on my own. I think I'm just being a wimp about dealing with language and cultural differences by myself, things that weren't so much a problem in Oz and NZ, like the machoism of Mediterranean countries. I've gone to Italy alone before and I hated being a target for guys, though really it's all rather harmless.

I'm trying to tell myself to not be so silly and that being single shouldn't limit me travelling to new places. At least I want to go to new places. I was thinking about where single female co-workers go for their holidays and it almost always is to places where they have friends to visit, or, for the Europeans, going back home to visit family and friends there. I don't want to stop going to new places just because I'm on my own and I have this perception that it wouldn't be as enjoyable.

So I'd like to plan a trip in June, for 3-4 days, and I'm petitioning for some suggestions of where I should go. It needs to be a rather cheap holiday, so I'm thinking of where I could go by train, or with a budget airline. I'm also thinking I'd like something quiet and out in nature rather than a city trip.

Going by train pretty much limits me to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France, and I'm not too keen on Germany and France, and Belgium seems like it would be too much like Holland. Cities like Ghent and Bruges sound lovely and quaint, but I can get that in Leiden. Has anyone been to the Ardennes? It's one consideration I have. Or, or possibly in combination with, going to Maastricht, which I've only been to once for a day years ago.

I have a book by Floortje Dessing with her top places in the world and one idea I got from that was going to Mallorca, where you can stay for cheap in a former monastery in the mountains (adding another former nun/monk house to the places I've stayed). A cheap flight there should be possible.

These are just some of the ideas I've had, but if anyone has a suggestion of somewhere cheap to go to for a few days, please let me know.