Trip to belgium, western germany, and lux advice?

Me and my girlfriend and her parents are taking a trip to england for three days and france for five, but in between me and the girlfriend have five days to spend where ever we want. I would like to make a loop by car from Paris to Brussels to Antwerp to Dusseldorf to Cologne to Luxembourg and then to East of Paris where her parents are staying with a family we know.

Any advice on these cities and surrounding areas would be greatly appreciated? She particularly likes outdoor activities and views. I particularly like beer and food. I like cathedrals and castles but can only see so many and they seem to be the first things that show up when you search for things to do.

Beer wise this would make a damn good trip. I've got a belgian brewery and pub web site that has nearly 100 names. alt, dortmunder export and kolsch are all from the german area we'll be crossing. Kolsch is of paticular interest because I make a nice one and would like to see if it close to the real deal.

Bugaboo said:

Me and my girlfriend and her parents are taking a trip to england for three days and france for five, but in between me and the girlfriend have five days to spend where ever we want. I would like to make a loop by car from Paris to Brussels to Antwerp to Dusseldorf to Cologne to Luxembourg and then to East of Paris where her parents are staying with a family we know.

Any advice on these cities and surrounding areas would be greatly appreciated? She particularly likes outdoor activities and views. I particularly like beer and food. I like cathedrals and castles but can only see so many and they seem to be the first things that show up when you search for things to do.

Beer wise this would make a damn good trip. I've got a belgian brewery and pub web site that has nearly 100 names. alt, dortmunder export and kolsch are all from the german area we'll be crossing. Kolsch is of paticular interest because I make a nice one and would like to see if it close to the real deal.

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Sounds like an awesome trip! If possible, I would make it a point to get to Brugge. That city is beautiful and from what I was told, nicer than Brussels (I didn't see much of Brussels except for the airport). Brugge is in what is considered the nicer half of Belgium. If you do go to Brugge, definitely make a stop at "In de Vrede" on the way for a couple Westvleteren 12s. This will be the highlight of the trip and is worth going out of the way to find the place. Ghent is also supposed to be really nice, but I didn't make it there.
As far as Germany, I really enjoyed Garmish, but it might be a little further than you want to drive. It was a really cool town and exactly what you picture when you think of a German village. If you make that trip, I would definitely try to stop at Neuschwanstein castle, which is the most famous castle in Germany. If you like castles, that is the one to see.
I also highly recommend Amsterdam, but that might have to be it's own trip.
Regardless of where you go, drink as much Belgian beer as you can and bring the rest back. You can bring back more than the limited amount as long as you pay tax on it and whatever baggage fee the airline charges. I wish I knew that when I went because I would have gladly payed a little tax. Have fun.

Would love to get down to bavaria but it's not in the cards this time. Amsterdam could actually happen. I'm not into marijuana and other elicit drugs, but it looks to be a beautiful city.

Will definitely be bring some beer back with my. Probably mostly from belgium since I can find kolsch and alt here.

Looking hard into a chocolate tour in brussels. 3 hours of tasting and an hour of actually making chocolate

Be sure to try Leffe Brune, then buy as much as you can take back with you, because it's seriously difficult to find in the states. Also, in Belgium, if you enjoy history, there is a lot of really interesting stuff to see in Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge), or for ww1 stuff you could go to Ypres. There is a cathedral there that was pretty much the only thing left (partially) standing after the fighting was over. The Ypres world war one museum (In Flanders Field Museum)is pretty amazing as well. there are foxholes and memorial sites all over, as well as the Flanders Field American Memorial and Cemetery.

When I was there last it was Veteran's Day here, as well as Remembrance day over there, so it was something pretty special to see these places where men fought and died for our country, as well as for others in the face of tyranny. When we visited the cemetery, the groundskeeper and his wife were incredibly nice, and stayed late answering questions and showing us around. Really great people. Since we were Americans, they even gave us the opportunity to fold the flag in the memorial room. It was definitely an experience I'll never forget.

I hope your vacation is equally memorable

That is a lot of driving for 5 days time. Unless you want to see these places from a moving car, I would recommend picking two or three cities and save yourself the headache of stop-and-go sightseeing.

You could easily spend 5 days in Belgium alone, there is a ton of stuff to do, even more so if you are into beer and/or want to visit breweries. Brugge and Antwerp are great and Brussels makes for a laid back afternoon of eating and drinking. I wouldn't go out of my way to visit Amsterdam, it is somewhat nice... but highly overrated, especially if your not into the whole "alternative lifestyle" thing.

Haven't been to Cologne, but I have family that vacations in Luxembourg and from what I've heard/seen it has very nice sightseeing and there isn't much to do otherwise.

Be sure to visit some pubs/breweries in England too.