Belgium and Spain trip

It's hard to give a useful answer. Is this your first trip to Europe or these countries? Why are you seeing cities so far apart-There could be good reason, but we don't know. I've been in Barcelona three times, but I question spending so much time there when there is so much more to see in Spain. Did you buy any air tickets yet? Most people don't need two and a half days in Bruges. What about Gent and Antwerp? It would be helpful to know your family interests and desires. Sorry not to be more helpful.

Day 2 - where are you arriving? Is it more than 1 hop? Day 5 - Bruges in the morning and Brussels for dinner? That's what I'd do; or is it leave for Brussels after brekkie? Or get to Gent on the way after brekkie - we believe that the very best fresh choccies we have ever had anywhere are between the Stadthuis and St Bavo's Cathedral in Gent.

No tickets have been bought as this is for 2013. Our main interests are history,food and beer/wine. My husband is in love with the architecture in Spain. I have 5 days for BCN because we don't have everything hashed out yet. We want to take a day trip to Figueres (sp?) and to some cava cellars. We have maybe an extra day in Bruges because we plan on spending a day at the WW1 fields and spend at least half a day biking. I've thought about Ghent but don't know enough about it. For logistics, we'll arrive in Brussels. When we leave Bruges we'd leave around mid-day.

Heather, make sure your husband looks at my TripAdvisor report on the Zurenborg/Cogels Osy lei neighborhood of Antwerp. There are at least a hundred townhouses nearly as nice as Barcelona's, if smaller. Many of them are in better condition. (Exteriors only, except for restaurants and art galleries.) This is walkable (right beside) the Berchem railroad station in Antwerp. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g188636-d523330-r117170889-Cogels_Osy_lei-Antwerp_Antwerp_Province.html I can't talk you out of Barcelona, but since your husband's interest seems to be 20th-century archictecture, think also about Bilbao and what I read are brand-new museums beside Santiago de Compostella, a lovely medieval city. (Both of those cities are rather isolated, with or without a car!) Madrid has a vast number of Art Deco buildings, but they're not quite as nice or in as good repair as in Barcelona. I saw a lot of the same period in Den Haag earlier this year, plus Euro-Craftsman. Seville has some respectable early 20th century buildings as well, but not as many as the other cities noted.