Belgium

So I'm going to Belgium on Tuesday for 6 days, as I haven't visited the land of beers yet.

Any suggestions on what to see and do?

My current plans look a little like this:

1. Train to Bruges, spend 2 days in Bruges. Tour of Flanders fields, castles, beers etc.
   
2. Keep the hotel/hostel in Bruges as a "base", and take a day trip to Ghent(?)
   
3. Day trip to Oostende
   
4. On Friday take the train to Brussels to meet a friend for the weekend
   
5. Back in London Monday morning
   
   

Any thoughts on doing the Ghent/Oostende day trips, or other cities I should consider instead of those? I'm even thinking of expanding out to the edge of France/Germany if I can get the right train connections.

Cheers!

Stay in Ghent - then day trip to Bruges. Less chocolate, lace and tourists, more beer.
Antwerp, just for it's most amazing train station.

Stay in Ghent - then day trip to Bruges. Less chocolate, lace and
tourists, more beer. Antwerp, just for it's most amazing train
station.

what he said, Bruges is nice but a day is already enough to see loads. and ++ to antwerp, great city. Oostende why not if you like offbeat seaside resort towns.

where you might be or where you might go, try the phantastic Karmeliet triple beer...
(ohh, and if you can find the Garre inn in Bruges, their Garre beer)

I've just returned yesterday and I thought I might update on how it all went:

It took me a lazy half day to get to Bruges on Tuesday. The whole aim for me was to relax, as I'm in between jobs/countries at the moment, so it seemed like a fitting place to do it. Hotel was 4 star, and I got a rather cheap deal because it was last minute and a single room (I'd normally go 3 star prices or whatevers cheapest on booking.com). They provided me with a "Discover Bruges" discount card which actually gave some decent discounts at places.

The tower climb is obviously a must (even according to the movie IIRC). The canal restaurants are horrendously expensive, but the hotel staff provided some good recommendations on restaurants. My favourite and one I highly recommend, De Vlaamsche Pot, had the most amazing Flemish Beef Stew ever, and I got 75cl of Tripel Karmeliet ( @maryann it was amazing - definitely my favourite). Also the Bagelsalon did amazing Bagels for lunch.

I spent 2.5 days in Bruges, for a whole day I hired a bike, and I found it was much better in terms of mobility and sightseeing, especially riding the excellent ring cycle path around the city border.

I took a day trip to Oostende, very much a local tourist spot, instead of an international one. Beautiful beach, although a bit empty as it was a weekday.

Brussels I got lucky, as it was the annual "car-free Sunday" where they block off the entire city to ride around/play in the streets with no traffic. Loads of bike events, including the Eddy Merckx World Shortest Time Trial 222m. My friend and I hired some Villo! bikes to ride around the city, unlike the Boris bikes they do not need to be docked every half an hour and are cheaper for a day (EUR1.60). Ended up dancing the night away in a random Tango Club. A thing to note is that they free pour spirits in Belgium, so a double vodka is actually 3/4 of a glass, for about 15EUR in a Grand Plaza bar. 15EUR seems like much but they actually gave you a quarter of a bottle in a glass haha.

Did a day trip to Liege, nice if you have the time but not overtly necessary.

I'll see if I can get some photos up from the time trial event.

Via booking.com to get it cheap this place. Stayed last year was awesome.

http://www.differenthotels.com/en/Hotels/Antwerp-City-Center-Hotel

Ghent castle is nice the mental asylum is a good visit too. Antwerp city bikes are rad choppers, museums are a bit naff as everyone is busy riding rad choppers. Brussels army museum and car museum are huge if you like french cars/tanks/stuff, lovely overlooked swords from ages past(by the shed load too) as they seem to know more is more.