Found a website and booked house in Bruges with its windy cobbled streets for less than €600 for the week.
Travelled by car via Dover/Calais
Saw all the sites including the smallest medieval window in Europe (about 6sq inches)
Each day visited a site - Ostend, Netherlands,Gent, Brussels and Ypres
The Ypres Salient was very soul searching and while the trenches were very spooky, it was great to find the names of the fallen ones in my garandfather's regiment (The Royal Dublin Fusiliers) inscribed on a huge monument in the largest war grave in Europe at Tyne Cot.
Great time was had by all.
Contrary to popular belief, the Belgians are very placid drivers - even though they do drive on the wrong side of the road!!
English spoken everywhere we went
While Bruge (or Brugge or Brugges) is very chocolate boxy, I like chocolate esp Belgian variety!!
Bruges is worth two days itself , but we used it as a base. Would have liked another day in Ypres - maybe next year!