Locobot

Personally I hated Brugge and loved Brussels in my travelling. Brugge felt like such a tourist trap albeit one with beautiful canals and art. Brussels has a tiny statue of a boy taking a piss as it's city emblem, you gotta love that. My favorite city in Europe was Berlin, but it's a different place now than it was five years ago. At that time it seemed like the whole city was under construction. If you go take the walking tour.

If you're looking for a break from big cities I recommend Gryon in Switzerland (look it up in your guidebooks). It's up in the mountains and the hostel there is always organizing various trips--to the spas, cheese farms, hiking, year-round skiing.

Barcelona is wonderful as well, I enjoyed it much more than Madrid. Be sure to see as much Gaudi architecture as you can, obviously his cathedral. Gaudi seemed like such a breath of fresh air after so much of the classic European buildings.