A longer update

I have returned. Here is an overview of what I saw / ate / drank. It was good. It was very good.

Day 1 (Monday, Oct 10):
Slept until early afternoon. Got out and strolled around the town center. Managed to get completely turned around and wandered in the completely wrong direction. Eventually made it to the Grand' Place (don't ask me what the apostrophe is for... I really don't know). Amazing looking place. We picked up our tourism packages from the place there which included a museum pass and metro pass. Went back to the hotel and got a dinner recommendation. Awesome food. Great wine. Not too expensive. (L'Estrille, if anyone's planning a trip. Highly recommend).

Day 2:
Went to the museum of the city. Luckily I can read French passably (as in, I understand about 75% of the words, and can make contextual guesses at the rest). Almost all of the signs were in French or Dutch/Flemish (I still don't know what the difference is, I think its accent, which I'd never be able to pick out). Interesting things about the history and growth of the city. The supposedly most interesting exhibit was closed: the wardrobe of the Mannekin Pis. The we went to the Beer Museum. Its not so much a museum as a video (there are about 5 objects from 17th-19th century brewing). Had a nice lunch (with more beer). Then went off in search of the musical instruments museum. We got lost and wandered around the Palace. Then we walked through the small park next to the royal palace. It was nice, and reminded me of a mini-Central Park. I learned to curse our tourist based maps which were missing streets or parts of street names. And the locations listed may not correspond to how you actually entered places. Went back to the hotel and rested for a bit, then went out for a nice dinner at the Grand' Place.

Day 3:
Re-attempted to find the museum of musical instruments and the art museum. We found them. Was very happy with both of them. Both of the museums were well laid out and had nice audio tours (in English). The musical instrument museum had little written description, but, as you neared exhibits there was a selection of music that played for the music. I had no idea bagpipes were as prevalent as they were. A very different approach from the one taken at NYC's Metropolitan's musical instrument exhibit. Less of the unusual instruments but more of the folk instruments in all their variety. Had a very nice restaurant on the top where we ate lunch. I had a great veggie lasagna with a creamy squash sauce. Then we went to the art museum. All of its sections are in different buildings: 20th, 19th, "ancient", but they're all connected through an underground passage. The 20th century one was all on "negative" floors, which should mean below ground, but, there was a large shaft which gave natural light onto all the artwork.

Day 4:
Went to Waterloo. I never was into battle history. I still am not. The museum was nice for what it had, but it seemed to be in a state of near dis-repair. The wax museum, which had some very interesting parts, had not been updated since the 50s or 60s. All of the cards were written in French only (unusual for such a location of international significance) and they were HAND written. It also had us exploring the bus system of Belgium. The guidebook said that the bus stopped at Waterloo. Nope. It stopped about 1/4 - 1/2 mile down the road and with a blocked view. The bus driver had to point us in the direction. If you ever visit, skip the the film and the 'audio-visuel spectacular'. Complete wastes of time. Oh, and bring good walking shoes. Its a long climb to the top of the Lion Butte. We decided to splurge on a very nice dinner. It was very good.

Day 5:
Went to Bruges. The city itself is gorgeous. But, there's not all that much to see here. Unlike Brussels, French is not spoken. People are very fluent in English. We saw a monastery hospital. It was more on the monastic aspect than the hospital aspect. I'd check the concert schedule as there's a lot going on at the concertgebouw here with good musicians. But, nothing we were interested in when we were there. If it had not been cloudy/foggy, we would have gone to the top of the belfry and looked around, but, when all we would have seen was clouds, we decided it wasn't worth the Euros.

Day 6:
Visited the Royal Museum of Military History and the Toy Museum. The former was great. Lots of exhibits, and you can tell that there's a lot more coming. Lots of armor, ballistics, uniforms, etc. Not much in English. The WW2 exhibit was about half done, but the first half was very nice. The toy museum was not worth the walk.

Day 7:
Went to Amsterdam. It happened to be the day of the Amsterdam Marathon. Oops. The marathon circled the park where the big museums were. We also discovered that two of the main museums were under reconstruction and closed until 2008. So, we turned around and walked back in search of lunch. DH was craving spices so we ate at a decent Chinese restuarant. Tasted just like they do in the US. Which of itself seemed a bit odd. Then we walked to the FOAM. I love photography and its exhibits. This was a very modern, bright museum. Great exhibits. The Netherlands have English as the second language, so almost every exhibit was in Dutch and English. We eventually got around the marathon and went to the Van Gogh museum. It was great. We started walking towards the Rembrandt house, but, we were very tired and never quite made it there. We enjoyed the ambience at a little park. Then took the train back to Brussels.

Day 8:
Shopped. And window-shopped. There is a ton of shopping in Brussels. Had a Guinness at an Irish-style pub, which I think was technically English.

Day 9:
Flew home. Very tired. Wrote this up, and I think I got things in the right order, but I'm not completely certain.

Things I wish I knew before travelling (and these aren't in the guidebooks):
Unless its a very nice restaurant, you seat yourself.
The restaurants in the Ilot Sacre are not worth it. The food is subpar and the service is as well. Better can be found 1-2 blocks off the Grand'Place.
Check when major sporting events are going on, and don't plan on travelling to those cities when said events are going on (unless you want to see the event).
How to speak French would be very useful. Mine is substantially subpar. Its mostly restricted to 'bonjour', 'merci','sil vous plait', and fencing terms.