Brussels and Bruge for the weekend with a 6 year old
 

Hi - we are going to Brussels and Bruge for the weekend with my six year old daughter. We arrive Friday night, will go to Bruges on Saturday and then poke around Brussels on Sunday before we take the Eurostar back to London. We are staying at a hotel on Avenue Louise (somewhere for my husband's work) and were looking for any suggestions of good places to eat and fun things to do.

I've done a bit of research, and we are more the slow traveler type rather than the type to see every sight in a day, but am looking for any ideas of places that might be kid friendly and fun, as well as being a bit cultural. I thought when we go to Bruges we might just wander around and go to the Folklore museum and maybe take in a canal ride before going back to Brussels for the night. On Sunday, I thought we could explore the Grand Place area (with the Mannekin Pis) and maybe go to the new Magritte Museum. I'd love to do some Art Nouveau exploring, e.g. Horta Museum, but probably won't have time.

In terms of restaurants / cafes, I am looking for suggestions of places that are not too formal, but not only serving kid food. We live in London, and she's pretty good with museums and restaurants, so any ideas would be welcomed!
Thanks for your help!!

A nice museum in Brussels that combines Art Nouveau with interesting, fun exhibits is the musical instruments museum, which is housed in the gorgeous "Old England" building, a former department store designed by Horta. When you visit the museum, you get given a headset at the entrance that allows you to listen to pieces of music played on each of the musical instruments on display, from the more well known to the totally obscure. http://www.mim.fgov.be/home_uk.htm

Even if you don't visit the museum, I'd recommend taking the lift up to the top floor for lunch or a drink in the rooftop restaurant, which has great views from the terrace.

Another child-friendly museum in Brussels is the natural history museum, which is located by the Parc Leopold in the European quarter, and houses a truly impressive collection of dinosaur skeletons in a recently renovated and revamped gallery (apparently Europe's largest dinosaur gallery) which allows kids to get right up close to the different fossils and dinosaur exhibits on display. http://www.naturalsciences.be/museum/dinosaurs

You could also try the open top, hop-on hop-off bus tour if the weather is good.

Food-wise, you could try Au Pain Quotidien, of which there are a number of branches around Brussels, including a nice one on Place du Sablon. Very child friendly, serving salads, open sandwiches, soups and various cakes and pastries. Always popular but generally very reliable!

In Brugge, what about the Chocolate Museum and/or the Frietmuseum? :)

http://www.choco-story.be/ENG/

http://www.frietmuseum.be/en/index.htm

Great ideas... thanks so much. Love the idea of the Frietmuseum for a laugh... And I was wondering about the Music Museum. Really appreciate it!

in brussels there is the comic strip museum where the TinTin museum has been rehoused. Try this link

http://www.trabel.com/brussel/brusse...comicstrip.htm