Advice on Belgium
Pretty much the same as my last question: I was wondering if there was anyone who lived in, or frequented, Belgium that would care to share some advice on trip planning. Sorry, I would have just added to the last one, but I couldn't find a way to change the title to reflect new questioning.
No, I haven't willfully changed my mind, but in waiting for the girlfriend's vacation to be approved over a grueling five weeks, finding out it wasn't, and being forced to go a week earlier than planned, the roundtrip costs to Amsterdam ballooned out of a desirable range. The compromise is now a one way ride: fly into Brussels, ride to Amsterdam, fly home. Tickets have been purchased, places on the plane for the bicycles confirmed, and new planning has begun! I've gotten a bulk of my Netherlands plans in the work, but I'm curious about the northern bit of Belgium between Brussels in the border.
Is the best way to go just to jump on the LF2 City Route and take it to the border? Is there anything of value that we would want to detour to see? The only thing I am really keen on (which was actually in my planning for the Netherlands itself) was a stop through Westmalle to see the abbey (even if from outside its walls) and sample its goods at the cafe across the road. We've got up to six days we'd like to allocate to riding, with a couple extra days built in for delays/sightseeing.
Also, how is Brussels in specific, and northern Belgium in general, for cycling infrastructure? I'm not expecting Netherlands quality, but I hope I didn't bite off too much.