Subject: Travel in Belgium

thanks to all for advices :)
someone know if there's some abbey that produce beers not far from these cities that opens to visitors?

@Väinämöinen: skmail ;)

in my opinion there's Leuven (The "oude markt" has about 30 cafés where you can experiment with alot of beers).
Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp are imo the better for the nightlife (discotheques and stuff) and shopping.
About those abbeys: This is a list of al abbeys and religious buildings in Belgium and this is a list of all Belgian beers, categorised from sorts
In Wallonie, the french part of Belgium, there's Dinant, Durbuy (for adventure life, mountain bike, paragliding, kayak and so on...), grottes of Han, Maybe a visit to Spa (The F1 circuit of Francorchamps).
There's more to our little country then the eye meets :-)

Visit a place for 2 or 3 nice old buildings and then drink isn't probably what you're looking for when you visit a country and have only 5 days :)
That's why I'd go for Bruges Ghent Brussels (nice cities to see), Antwerp (imo not that much to see, but nice to walk around and give the wife some shopping chances) and then depending on the extra time you can go to the beach (could be crowded in July though) or to Bastogne or other parts of the Ardennen. Or visit the Westhoek (its 100 year since WW 1, so lots of festivities and most graveyards and monuments will be nice and shiny)
Don't forget there are 2 kids as well, so maybe 4 days of only cityhopping isn't completely what you want to do :)

I would also recommend Leuven though. It's cosy, not too big given you have children and has a lot of history. You could visit the InBev brewery, you're wife could go shopping and afterwards have a drink at "de oude markt" (the old market/square)

If you go for antwerp visit the zoo in the city centre, or the aquacenter, your kids will love it.

The only must see is probably ghent. And if i were you i wouldn't go to Brussels since it's big and you really need to know where the 'nice' places are.

Lastly, most brewery's in abbey's can be visites but are hard to travel to without a car. But i'm convinced you'd find someone on this forum to do the trip with you! :)

Thank you all, now I've an idea about route to follow :)
I'll rent a car for sure, since I don't know about belgian railways and I want more flexibility.
About Bruxelles, well.. I come from Rome, so I think I wouldn't scare about his extension ;) only I've to understand if it deserves a visit or not.
Definitely I could add Leuven to itinerary despit of Brussel.
Do you know any interesting abbey around zone that I would visit?