🇧🇪 How to spend my time in Belgium 🇧🇪 Which cities/places should I visit and how long should I spend in them?

I'm travelling solo to Belgium in October and I'll have 3 full days there. It's my first time travelling solo (a bit nervous!). I've been to Brussels for 2 nights about 10 years ago, but haven't been anywhere else in Belgium. I'm visiting mid-way through a 7 week UK/EU trip so I'll be tired!

I LOVE cities! I could walk around European city centres forever. I'm pretty stock-standard on my travel preferences... old stuff, history, food, drink, museums, galleries, cobbled streets. I like (a very little bit of) nature but prefer bricks to trees.

I especially love learning about local history (especially royal stuff and learning about how the city/country fits into the puzzle of European/world history) and any historical/rich/old/grand palace or house is my absolute favourite thing to see.

My shortlist:

  • I've got Ghent, Bruges and possibly Antwerp on my shortlist but I'm open to suggestions.
  • I don't think I want to revisit Brussels on this trip but I could have my mind changed.
  • I'd love to know about how I could arrange my short time there, and which places are most worth visiting, and whether I'm missing anything else cool.
  • Would Ghent be a good base for day trips to the other places? The city centre seems a little bit of a hike from the train station so I'm worried it wouldn't be efficient.

Itinerary - the beginnings!

Sunday: train London > Belgium (Brussels, but possibly another city)

Monday-Wednesday: open to ideas! (possibly accom in Ghent, with day trips to other towns)

Thursday: Brussel > Munich train