What I want to do in Belgium

I've mentioned it a few times on here, but I'm off to Belgium later this month: I'm staying in Brussels, taking a day trip to Ghent and then doing an overnight stay in Bruges. The first 2.5 days I'll be traveling solo (for the first time ever - tips appreciated) and then I'll be joined by my bestie and her other half. I'm looking forward to both parts of the trip; it will be so nice to do my own thing at my own pace and just completely chill out but at the same time, I'll be glad when they're there to play cards and take great Instagram photos. You know?

pls this was like 4.5 years ago

One of the things I'm really looking forward to is the museums - I am a huge fan of museums, and I've got a Brussels card (more on this in an upcoming post, when I'm home and have used it, but shout out to the Brussels tourist board for working with me on this!) which means I can get in to all the museums for free. I'm particularly excited about the musical instruments museum, the comic strip museum, Brussels City museum (which has 100 little outfits for the Mannekin Pis statue) and obviously the beer and chocolate museums. I love to learn new things and museums are definitely a good way of doing this - plus it's meant to be pretty hot while I'm there, so it'll be nice to get out of the sun.

Holly and I are also hoping to visit Mini Europe, which is an outdoor park full of scaled down versions of some of Europe's most famous landmarks. It looks brilliant and I think more than anything it'll definitely be a bit of fun! Mont des Arts (art hill) is meant to have spectacular views over Brussels, so I definitely want to go there, and there's a pretty palace up there too which I can't wait to see.

In Ghent, I really want to see Gravensteen which is a 12th century castle that looks like something straight out of a fairy tale - seriously stunning. As I've only got the day in Ghent, I can't do anything major but I'm completely fine with that; I want to visit a few record shops, as there's meant to be some really cool ones, and see the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, which is a famous painting housed in Ghent's St Bravo cathedral.

mostly I'm just hoping the weather is better than the last time I was in Belgium

I have wanted to go to Bruges since I saw In Bruges with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson - but there's nothing there that I am absolutely dying to do. Apparently there's a lovely park hidden in the city which has sheep roaming around (amazing) and there are free harp concerts in the city which I think would be really cool to see. Mostly, though, Bruges is just beautiful and I can't wait to see the sights with my pals.

If you have any recommendations for anything to do/see/eat/visit/photograph in any of these Belgian cities, I would love to know - leave me a comment below and get in touch on Twitter please!