Musem Night: A night to remember!

M HKA

After reading the entire list of Museum-activities, we had no idea where to start! So much stuff going on (21 to be exact) and only so little time (actually 5 hours, so plenty)! Especially since me and my boo only left at sunset, which turned out to be a pretty awesome idea because we started out at the M HKA rooftop sessions and saw the sun set over our beautiful city. Mesmerizing!

I must say that visiting a museum during nighttime is something completely different. The vibe is a little bit peculiar, more intimate and more enchanting, definitely worthwhile. Most visitors agreed with me on that one, I asked some of them why they preferred a museum visit at night and I received exactly the answer that I had in mind.  Most of the visitors in M HKA (contemporary art) were my age (between 20 and 30) and they all loved the concept of visiting multiple museums in one night. Because even though most of them lived in the city, they had never taken any time to visit our cultural masterpieces . This night however, was the perfect opportunity to mix culture with social networking. I had the feeling that the entire Antwerp social scene of generation Y was present. Aside from all the sociable chit chat, one of the features for Generation Y , there was much to see! As mentioned before, the rooftop sunset was phenomenal, and so was the Jan Fabre exhibition downstairs.

Plantin Moretus

After M HKA, we biked to the Museum Plantin-Moretus (#ilovevelo) where we were flabbergasted by the architecture of the building! I would have never thought this building was as spectacular as the collection inside. Leather walls and wall tapestry, enormous paintings and beautiful libraries, I just couldn’t get enough of the building and even got lost during the walk upstairs. Extra bonus of this extraordinary building, was the courtyard where a Renaissance music performance was taking place. I felt like a time traveler and wished I was born in this era!

Antwerp City Hall

Since Museum Plantin-Moretus was so overwhelmingly Rennaisance-ish , I had to have more. So next stop was the Antwerp city hall, which celebrates its 450th life year. This was also a true masterpiece and when I witnessed the marvelous wedding room, I just hoped my (imaginary) marriage date wouldn’t be that far away. 

Diamond and silver experience

Last stop was the museum for jewelry, silver and diamonds. Naturally I had to visit since I’m still Jewish and all shiny things will have a special place in my heart. This museum will be opened for the public only in 2017 so we could only take a glimpse at the new collection, but it was definitely worthwhile. Especially because we could take part in the tea-tasting. #everbodylovestea!

In 3 hours’ time, we had the opportunity to visit 4 extraordinary places! However, there is even an extra bonus because  with this wristband you can still go visit all other participating museums until the end of august! I absolutely loved this night and I will be present every year from now on! Thank you Antwerp!