My friend and I are traveling from London to Belgium and back via Amsterdam. We have a half day on July 29 at best, the 30, 31 and half day August 1 before we have to head back to good 'ole London. I'm a designer and would love to hear about sweet architecture and design shops. What would you recommend with a schedule like that for newbies to the area?

And now, for the boat load of questions:

Right now we're thinking fly into Brussels and stay the night in Bruges? How do we travel between the two? www reference? good cheap place to stay?

Is there a good train from Bruges to Amsterdam?

Where would be a good place to stay if you are not into hookers and drugs in Amsterdam?

Has anyone done the DutchFlyer? It sounds like an interesting way back to London.

Thanks in advance!

Check out the Horta Museum in Brussels.

For train schedules in Belgium (and to Amsterdam), go to
http://www.b-rail.be

We travelled from Brussels to Bruges via train and it was quite easy. It was a 5 minute walk from the train station to our hotel. For places to stay, there are an abundance of B&B options in people's homes. I'm sure if you do some internet searching you can find listing. The one we stayed at was less than $50 a night including breakfast. I remember when we were making our plans we had at least 10 or 15 similar options to choose from - all rooms in private homes. We LOVED Bruges, and I would go back there again in a heartbeat. We even extended our stay there by an additional night.

P.S. We also then went from Bruges to Amsterdam (seems we have the same travel tastes!) and there were many choices, all convenient and speedy.

Last one...I found info on the home we stayed at: the woman's name is Lutgart Bullen and her email is [email protected] We stayed in the attic room for $55 euro a night (sorry, a little higher than what I wrote earlier)

Try this site for many other listing by price range: http://www.brugge.be/verblijf/en/gastencat.htm