Brussels or another city?

First time in Europe. Have about a week and I know I am going to London and Amsterdam. I heard great things about Brussles so I am thinking of adding it as well. What other cities are near Amsterdam and London and worth seeing for a day?

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Paris. From London you can take the Eurostar to either Paris or Brussels, if you go to Paris you could then take Thalys to Brussels (1h22) and continue North by ordinary InterCity train (also by Thalys but there is no time advantage on that route as the high-speed track only exists between Paris and Brussels) to Amsterdam, which takes 3h. Of course if you want to return to London by train, you would have to go through Brussels again - after which the Eurostar stops at Lille on the way to London, if that interests you.

From Brussels you can easily visit Brugge (1h) for the day or if you want to go into Germany, it%26#39;s about 1 1/2h to Aachen and 2 1/2h to Cologne.

From Amsterdam there are heaps of places worth visiting, such as Delft, Leiden, the Hague (Den Haag). Here%26#39;s a railmap for the whole area:

http://www.alleuroperail.com/

eurorailway-maps/benelux-map.htm (reconstitute into one line). Brugge is between Ghent and Ostende.

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My goodness, you can spend a whole week exploring just London (daytripping to Oxford, Stonehenge, Bath, Cantabury, Cambridge, etc), or the Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft, etc.) or Brussels and Flanders (Antwerp, Ghent, Brugges etc).

These cities in Belgium are just half a hour%26#39;s away from each other by train, like going from the loop to Forest hill.

So your choice should be based on what you would be interested to see or experience: archeology, architecture, arts and performing arts, churches, food and beers, etc.

If you are interested in museums, here is a list for 7 days:- British Museum; Somerset house (3 museums/ galleries); Victoria and Albert; The Tower of London, British Library; the Art Gallery, Tate and Tate modern; Rijmuseum; not forgetting the one in Brussels which also needs a day. Every day you will be seeing more than those exhibiting in the Field Museum.

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Be adventurous, go to somewhere that%26#39;s not a capital city, there%26#39;s loads of choices. Try Oxford, Bath, Brighton, Bristol, Stratford, York, Edinburgh - you chaps from over there seem to like those places.

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Just a warning if you DO like museums: the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is currently closed for renovations (and likely to remain so until 2013), apart from the Philips Wing, see http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/

tentoonstellingen/rijksmuseum?lang=en

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Obviously if you want try somewhere that is not a capital city you should avoid Edinburgh

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