Newbie Europe Trek

This will be my first backpacking trip with my girlfriend. We will be flying standby for cheap as her mother works for Air Canada. We will be staying with a friend in Dusseldorf – that is why Cologne only says that we are staying for one day. We will be using the Benelux-Germany 8 day rail passes for travel between cities, and will be paying for point-to-point when going to and from Prague, and to Bruges (trying to keep it simple and most covered under pass). Any advice, suggestions, and tips are appreciated and welcomed! We are also looking for advice regarding which cities to start/end in.

While 3 days per city is a good pace, 3 days each in Brussels, Brugges, Antwerp and Luxembourg would be a little too leisurely for me. They’re all compact (from a tourist standpoint) and very short train rides apart.

How does it look now? I changed it so that there are only two days in Brugges and Antwerp but I added those two days in Ghent as it is close by and a guy I know highly recommended paying it a visit. Thanks for the advice!

Looks good. I’d seriously look at a few days in Ghent and visiting Brussels and Brugges as day trips — or spend the day in Brussels in route between Luxembourg and one of the cities in Flemish Belgium.