THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER

Our long weekend began with a East Midlands Trains journey from Derby to London St Pancras. We had enough time for a drink at the St Pancras Grand Hotel before we hot footed it to the Eurostar terminal for the final departure of the day to Brussels Midi at 1934. This train was operated by a 'classic' Eurostar and if honest we prefer them to the new Siemens e320 trains that are now coming into service.

The on board crew were pretty swift and our meal was being served to us just after we passed through Stratford International. This saw me settling for the beef option and Heather having the feta cheese and spinach quiche, both washed down with wine.

With a circa two hour journey, plus the one hour time difference, we were in Brussels just after 2230. There was still time to pop out an enjoy a quick look at the Grand Place, pay a visit to Fritland for a portion of double cooked chips with a side portion of ketchup and have one of the 30 beers that were on tap at the Little Delirium Bar. With the exception of eating some chocolate and seeing the Atomium and the Manneken Pis that pretty much had the Belgian capital done before turning in for the night!

FRIDAY 28 OCTOBER

Happy birthday Heather!

Our Friday started with a bit of a wander around central Brussels looking for a decent breakfast stop and we plumped for the Mokafe in the stunning Galleries St Hubert. It was just a short walk then to Brussels Central station for our train to Ghent, a journey of just under 40 minutes.

Our accommodation in Ghent was the Veergrep City Rooms which turned out to be a rented room in a house. Not our normal style and it was certainly a 'one of a kind'. I doubt we will be stopping there again if in Ghent, although it was rather good value.

Ghent is a great city to visit (although the railway station is a long walk, or a tram ride, to the central area) and compared to Brugge it is far more pleasant and a lot less touristy in my view. There are plenty of fabulous historic buildings in the city centre, lots of great shops, pleasant canalside walking and more bars and restaurants than you can shake a stick at. Whether by day, or by night it is a stunning city to admire and the people are really friendly too.

Wandering around the back streets we stumbled on Melanie's, a fabulous wine and beer shop. The owner was really helpful, knowledgeable about the wine and spoke great English. She was also keen to give samples of some of the wines too - her tactics worked and we came away with a bottle of New York State Riesling, something we have never seen or tasted before. Hopefully it will travel well back to the UK along with a Belgian Porter Ale that was purchased.

We also picked up some Ghent specialities in the shape of Snowballs (a creamy dreamy thinly chocolate covered melt in the mouth delight) and Ghent Noses (a sweet and sugary purple jelly sweet). Both are worthy of a try if you are in Ghent and like nothing we have ever tasted before.

Being in Belgium it was also required to sample a beer or two and at the Alchemist bar in Ghent the Rochfort 10 (an 11.3% Trappist brew) was a stunner. As there are just a few hundred more varieties of beer to try in Belgium others sampled included a fabulous Westmalle Dubbel, a La Chouffe and some Jupiler, as a much lighter alternative, over the weekend.

Saturday evening saw us eat at The Bridge where Heather enjoyed the Chicken Waterzooi which is a Flemish chicken and vegetable stew and I had the Ghent Stoverij a rather rich beef and beer stew. Both dishes were fabulous and having got back to our room it turned out our restaurant choice was one of the best places to eat in Ghent according to Trip Advisor.

SATURDAY 29 OCTOBER

It was an early start as we were catching the 0824 departure from Ghent to Knokke on the northern Belgian coast. It was a nice place to visit and a complete contrast to Ghent as there were virtually no old buildings to be seen. After a great Flemish bacon and eggs breakfast we caught the Coastal Tram (Kusttram) and headed south. The whole journey can be done in two hours but we decided to break up the trip a bit.

Our first stop was Blankenburg where we wandered along the promenade and the pier before boarding the tram again to continue south.

We hopped off at Haan aan Zee just because it looked nice as we went through the suburbs on the tram and what a great place it was. Compared to the other seaside towns the promenade was less built up, there were some older looking buildings and it was a nice place for lunch. The meal was a bit heavy on the salad, but the Jupiler beer helped wash down the Croque Monsieur (x 2) that were delivered on the plate.

We continued south through Oostende and got off next at De Panne, fairly close to the end of the tram line, to experience another town. I think we were a little spoiled with Haan as De Panne was really busy and very built up in comparison. Given we wanted to catch the 1752 train from De Panne station back to Ghent we were soon on our last tram trip of the day to the terminus of the line. The €5.00 day ticket was great value and even though we only did the journey one way (68km/42 miles).

Once back in Ghent we found a Thai restaurant for evening meal before settling in at Oude Visjiem a waterside bar in the city centre.

SUNDAY 30 OCTOBER

Our Eurostar back to London was at 1556 from Brussels so with a few hours to spare we visited Leuven which was a hour by train from Ghent but also just 20 minutes from Brussels.

Leuven was another fabulous little city to visit. There were lots of historic buildings in the centre and it was an easy place to walk around too and far closer to the station than Ghent. Leuven is the home to Stella Artois, a beer that I wouldn't normally drink, but when in Leuven it seemed to taste much better than I remembered.

After a good value, but rather slowly served lunch at Troubadour (three courses €19.50) it was time to head back to Brussels and catch our Eurostar service to London. Train 9145, the 1556 departure from Midi/Zuid station was formed of a refurbished 'classic' Eurostar set - these really are the best of both worlds!

It has been some time since our previous visit to Belgium and I sincerely hope we will be back again rather sooner. There is so much to see in northern Belgium, it is easy to get around by train/public transport and there are always more beers to try than you can enjoy in a weekend. Overall a fabulous trip!