Our time in Italy had sadly drawn to an end so we headed from the beautiful Italian Riviera towards Milan where we spent the night and then drove on through Switzerland, France and Belgium to Pijnacker in the Netherlands.
As the weather had turned grey and rainy we didn’t feel too bad about moving on.
After a night near Milan we headed for the Swiss border and soon we were crossing the glorious Alps once again.
We stayed the next night in Lausanne on Lake Geneva and then headed for France.
By chance, we stopped for the third night in the gorgeous city of Metz which was a real find.
The City lies at the confluence of two rivers – the Moselle and the Seille – and is located near to where the borders of France, Germany and Luxembourg converge.
There wasn’t much time to explore this fascinating city but we vowed to return to see more of it one day in the future.
It was great to be back in The Netherlands with our daughter and partner – just in time for tulip season.
During our first weekend we cycled the short distance to historic and very picturesque Delft where a huge paddock next to the station had been planted with tulip bulbs and which were in full bloom.
Citizens and visitors alike were invited to pick bunches of tulips for the princely sum of one Euro. (Aus$1.65 or roughly one pound sterling). It was a fun occasion with local people in national dress and music playing from a traditional barrel organ.
There were so many colours and varieties of tulips and we carried home armfuls of blooms in a virtual kaleidoscope of colours and hues and of many different shapes and sizes.
Salty tales from Bali Hai on Sunday 
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