Freemasonry and Architecture, De Loge (exhibit, Brussels, 22-12-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Who would pass the chance to see a Freemasons temple on the inside? Not me anyway!


In Brussels one of their old, remaining temples has become a museum for architecture and they are now showing an exhibit about Freemasonry and architecture. Kind of appropriate right? And pretty interesting too!
We learned a lot about the history of the temples, styles and the movement even though it was only a small exhibit. And it's very nice to see the architecture "live" at the same time.


The exhibit is still running un till 1-4-2007 (it has been prolonged!) and another tip: there is another temple in Brussels and they have a museum about Freemasonry. We'll certainly check it out some time!

Celtic Ireland

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Restaurants
Cuisine:	Irish
Location:	Groenplaats, Antwerp (also pubs in Gent, Brugge, Oostende and Liège)

Great atmosphere, decoration based on the book of Kells, red beer on draught, delicious food (I had salmon on self made bread and it was sooooo good!): a perfect Irish pub ;-)

And their site is cool too: Celtic Ireland

Folklore Museum Antwerp (16-12-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Folklore museums are always great to visit because you get to see and learn so many new things about the customs of the people of the region it is about. This specific museum has al kinds of objects related to customs in the city of Antwerp. And as I am now an employee of this city I get to visit this museum for free ;-)

The inside of the museum itself doesn't look like much. It's an old stuffy sixties building with very static displays but the objects are great! The museum will eventually close by the way and become part of the new MAS museum which is being built quite near to my work right now.

But about the objects! They have all kinds of stuff here ranging from children's toys to pharmacy bottles. They have the heads of the two local giants which would be paraded around the town on certain occasions; they have puppets from the famous local puppet theatres; they have objects about marriage, birth and death in the region. There is even an imitation of a pharmacy including loads of bottles and a stuffed crocodile (the information said that the crocodile used to be a pharmacy symbol).

Highlight of the museum is the collection of folkloristic magical objects. These things are very mysterious and funny. They include, for instance, a stuffed toad dressed as a bishop, a whistle with a rat foot attached to it, dolls with very large nails in them and other interesting things like that. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection!

I am not sure when the museum will close but I have heard that the collections that are on display now will be packed and stored quite soon to make room for a last big exhibit in this building. So either you visit this museum soon or you'll have to wait un till the new Mas museum is ready (somewhere in 2009 I guess).

Mummies in the library (Antwerp, 16-12-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

How could I ever resist going to an exhibit with a title like this?
I love mummies! I love libraries! This must be heaven!

Actually the exhibit was not just about mummies but about the collection Egyptian artifacts from the time when Egypt was very hip (1870-1920's). They most certainly collected some wonderful pieces in Antwerp! The information was very interesting; I actually learned some new facts and I have seen many Egyptian exhibits. And yes there was a mummy too ;-)

The library itself is the oldest and most original room in the City Library of Antwerp. This room is everything a library should be! It's old with wood and cast iron ornaments; it has moody lights; there are stuffy old books and creepy stairs leading to it's other floor (which you cannot visit which makes it even more mysterious).

This exhibit is almost over (last day 31st of December) but if there's another exhibit you should definitely see it because the library is worth it already!

Gorge(l), KMSKA (Antwerp, 10-12-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

The latest exhibit in the Royal Museum of Modern Art in Antwerp is about oppression and relief in art. All the shown pieces are about strong feelings.
They are about pain and blood,
they are weird and scary,
they are creepy,
they are dark,
they are moving,
they are beautiful!

The exhibit includes works from artists like James Ensor, Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, Thierry De Cordier and many more. It's quite exciting!

Now this is an essential exhibit! Definitely one of the best truly modern art exhibits I've seen in quite a while. Very non-conformistic and definitely at your throat.

The exhibit is still running un till the 7th of January 2007.

Fotomuseum Antwerp (10-12-2006)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

Three exhibits:

- Carl De Keyzer: a great photographer of people in very common to quite uncommon but always interesting situations

- Tunnelvision: some interesting views

- Dansant (dancing in Antwerp): some great historical pics

It's not essential to see these exhibits but it sure is fun! All three are still running until January the 7th.

Haka (Maori-dance)

http://www.newzealand.com/travel/about-nz/culture/haka-feature/haka.cfm
One of the reasons why the all blacks kick ass!

Pretty Dead

Cemetery of the Park Abbey in Leuven, Belgium, a very pretty and relaxing place were we saw an exhibit and two kingfishers!!!
Date: 12-11-2006

Tool (Vorst National, Brussels, 10-11-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I know, I know, I have already seen them live once this year but hey that was a festival and it was still light! And I so much wanted to see their light show in a dark place ;-)

And it was definitely worth every penny! Their light show is not just brilliant, it's sublime!

The music is the light, the light is the music
What you see is what you hear
What you hear is what you feel
The images are the light and the sound
All is one
Tool is in everything
Tool is in me and I am Tool!

Faith and Fortune (exhibit, Bruges, 5-11-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

This exhibit is about all kinds of pins from the Middle Ages, mostly from pilgrimages and such. And if it's Medieval I'm there ;-)

During the Middle Ages wearing pins on your clothes was pretty important for it said something about your status, your faith, your identity. Most of them were mass-produced but they are still all very pretty and interesting!
You can also see several nice paintings of people wearing pins, some funny paintings and several beautifully illuminated prayer books.
Really interesting in this exhibit are the 'funny' pins displaying all kinds of erotic scenes. You don't even see many of those nowadays ;-)

The museum itself is very nice too. It used to be a city 'palace' for the family Van Brugghe-van der Aa a.k.a. the lords of 'Gruuthuse'.
Highlight of the house is the private chapel which is built into the church of Our-Lady next to the house which gave the family a very comfortable view of mass.
The ticket for this exhibit is also valid for a visit to this church in which you can see the graves of Mary of Burgundy and Charles the Bold.

So if you are into the Middle Ages you should definitely check this out!

On top of the world!

Now this was a wonderful exciting experience: climbing the St.-Rombouts tower (97 meters) at night!
Date: friday November the 3th and an almost full moon too!

I Love Techno (Gent, 21/22-10-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I LOVE KRAFTWERK!!!

(and the rest wasn't half bad either ;-))

Zeeland again

Another trip to my parents (15/16 october 2006)

WorkView

Some pictures of the views at work (FelixArchief, Antwerpen). Some are better viewed large ;-)

Magical Mechelen

Pictures of 3 nice exhibits/events in Mechelen

Blood on the Wall (AB, Brussels, 6-10-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

How many times in your life will you listen to an album of a before unknown band and love them instantly? I'm not sure but not that many times I guess. At least not to me!
But this year it happened. As I heard the album "Awesomer" of "Blood on the Wall" for the first time I loved it so much I had to hear it again. And again. And another time...


Sadly after a while the album wasn't online anymore (it was on the vpro 3voor12 site) so I was almost going into withdrawal symptoms when my love asked me if they had a site (we were wondering where they were from and I wasn't totally sure it was New York). So I found their site. And their tour agenda...

And lo and behold! They were coming to Brussels! Soon! And the tickets were cheap! And it was on a friday! In the Ancienne Belgique (which is easy to reach by train and the concerts start earlier so you can catch the last trains)!
What a happy day indeed!

So tickets were bought and yesterday we went to magical Brussels.
The concert was in the Ab-club which is a very small pub-like room up a large stair with a small podium. The support act was already playing when we got there (we were hiding from the rain in the Oreilly's Irish pub on the other site of the road which was very nice too). They were quite ok.
After a little break and a trip to the loo for me "Blood on the Wall" started their gig. And it was perfect!

This band sounds exactly like I want it to sound. Noise, melody, husky female voice, screaming guy, throbbing beat, Rock&Roll!!!
All sounds and melodies and noise are perfectly placed. They are the best of Sonic Youth, Pixies and many others like those. And they sound great live! And they are clearly having fun as well.
Not many people have seen this performance but I'm sure they were all very impressed by it.

And afterwards the singer/guitar-player jumped of the stage all sweaty and excited to sell us their record. Don't you just love that? And to make sure I won't get withdrawal symptoms ever again I bought one ;-)

Masters of pre-Columbian art (Brussels, 6-10-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Actually four exhibits for the price of one ;-)

Main exhibit:
pre-Columbian art collection of Dora and Paul Janssen
They managed to collect many many extremely fine pieces of meso-American and also South-American (mostly Colombian gold) art. Almost every piece is worth a close and long look! So many exciting objects! So much detail!
And there's some more happy news! There was a chance the collection would move to another country because of legal/money problems but this has been solved. The 350 objects can stay in the museum! Yippee! -makes little dance-

Smaller exhibits:
- Indians in Brussels, world exhibition of 1935
Funny exhibit of a visuals from 1935, clothes worn by the Indians who where at the exhibit and more recent European Indian kitsch

- Traditional clothes from Mexico
Colourful and beautiful accompanied by Mariachi tunes

- Wickerwork from the new world
Very pretty and interesting things and it smells great too ;-)

These four exhibits are still running until the 29th of march next year so every-one has time enough to visit them. And as an extra you can always visit the permanent collection too ;-)

Another tip: the museum has a restaurant which is quite expensive but the chocolate cake (6 euro's!) is brilliant so if you have some money to spare you should try it (at least once in your life).

Zoo Planckendael 30-9-2006

Processie Peutie

Procession 24-9-2006, Peutie (Vilvoorde), Belgium

Museum for Art and History Brussels

Jubelpark / Parc du Cinquantenaire, 23-9-2006

Spinvis (Mechelen, 15-9-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

It's hard to find really nice music from the Netherlands and it's even harder to find brilliant music in Dutch. Most artists, singing either English or Dutch, make boring commercial tunes with lyrics that are faulty and meaningless. Of-course there are exceptions and Spinvis is one of those.

Spinvis makes cut and paste music with poetic lyrical sketches of (Dutch) life. It's more or less a project of one guy but live he brings a whole band with drums, guitars, cello, trumpets and many many more instruments.
And the effect is perfect! The musicians have much fun making the music, the lyrics are funny and pretty, the experience is very enjoyable ;-)

I think this music is also quite nice for non-Dutch speakers but it's a lot nicer when you can understand the lyrics because they are so beautiful sometimes.
So if you don't speak Dutch you can always give it a try; if you do know Dutch you should definitely listen to some songs!

Check out the site here (try 'disco' for songs)

Bat gone to heaven

Yesterday I found a little dead bat hanging on the ceiling between some wooden beams at work. It's almost mummified and is now part of my collection ;-)
I have never been able to study a bat this close so I'm happy! Here's the ode to my little dead brown bat ;-)

Gallery 'Het Vijfde Huis' (the fifth house), Antwerpen

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

If you are ever in the neighbourhood you should check out this gallery because it has very nice exhibits and interesting artists.

their site: http://hetvijfdehuis.com
Location: Reyndersstraat 5, Antwerpen

Museum Mayer van den Bergh (Antwerpen, 10-9-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another discovery this year! And another free visit ;-)

This museum is actually based on the collection of one man (Felix Mayer van den Bergh). Sadly he died young so he never got to complete his brilliant collection and he never saw his museum. The museum was founded by the collector's mother. And we are very happy that she did!

The collection ranges from medieval to renaissance and from various objects to paintings. There are some beautiful treasures here!
One of the most famous paintings in the collection is 'Mad Meg' (Dulle Griet) by Bruegel the Elder.

The museum itself is also another treasure as it is situated in a 16th century house. All the rooms are decorated and the paintings and objects are exhibited in a very homely setting. This makes the museum a very nice place to be indeed!

The museum site
More info also on http://amuseevous.be

Other free visits on this day: Rubenshuis (very fast), Ethnographic Museum (interesting Maroc exhibit). You can find reviews from last year for these locations here somewhere ;-)

Sneak Preview!

Celebrating my new job ;-)

This week I have started my new job working in the city archive of Antwerp. It has just moved to a new and very big location and the archive isn't open for the public yet. If you live in Antwerp (Belgium) you can see part of the building on monumentendag ;-)

I will ofcourse show a lot more of this place through the next weeks ;-)

Leuven Sky

27-8-2006, visit leuven ;-)
http://www.leuven.be/showpage.asp?iPageID=2721

Noctour

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

4 video's from 4 different artists on 2 perfect locations. Two video's are showing un-till 27-8-2006 the other two from 1-9-2006 un-till 1-10-2006.

Video number one is "Blood, Sea" from Janaina Tschäpe (see picture) showing in the garden of the Busleyden museum.

Video number two is "Three Minutes" from Anri Sala which is projected on the Lamot building.

Video number three is "The Ich-Manifestation" from Su-Mzi Tse soon to be shown in the Busleyden garden.

Video number four is "No Road" from Wim Catyse soon to be projected on the Lamot building.

You can see the video's every thursday to sunday from 21:30 to 24:00 and it's free. So come and see: it's fun, it's beautfiul and Mechelen by night is a wonderful experience!

Information also on http://www.noctour.be

Church of St.-John

Continuing the churches of Mechelen series ;-)
Parish church in Brabant Gothic style (1443-1483) with a rich Baroque interior.
See up close for details ;-)

Trip to St.-Niklaas

20-8-2006

Mercatormuseum + St.-Niklaas (20-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

I love the amuseevous project! It gives you great opportunities to visit places and museums you haven't been yet. I've never been in the city St.Niklaas and I didn't even know they had a museum of any kind. So time to check it out!

The only thing I did know about this city is that it has the largest grand market of Belgium (almost every city in Belgium has a grand market by the way). The museum was supposed to be somewhere near it so we went that direction.
The market is easy to find and indeed quite big. But no signs to any kind of museum....
It was becoming extremely windy and rainy by that time so after looking at a map to see where to go now we rushed into the city hall.

Now that was a good choice because the city hall is very nice inside, there was an exhibit and they had loo's!
After our visit to the toilets it was still raining quite hard so we went to have a look at the Tour de France exhibit.
It was a great collection of old and new stuff. Especially the bikes from the 19th century were brilliant. They even had races with tricycles in those days!

It was still raining when we went outside and we had spotted a church behind the city hall so we walked there first. It happened to be the church of our lady and it is extremely impressive on the inside.
The roof, the walls and the columns were all decorated in fabulous colors and designs. We were stunned!
The church isn't very old (Neo-Roman/Gothic/Byzantine so late 19th century) but it is definitely worth a visit.
And it was actually dry when we went outside! (see some pics)

Time to find the museum. We had still seen no signs leading anywhere so we looked at another map to see where to go. By this time it had started raining very hard again so we sheltered for the rain some more...
Finally it started to rain a bit less and we had time to go to the museum! The street it was in was quite close but there was only one sign leading to another museum (which we didn't even see, only a parking lot). So we went back into the street the museum was supposedly in and finally there was a sign! Through the gates and into a garden and there it was!

The Mercatormuseum is quite small but it has a nice collection of original Mercator maps and books. If you don't like maps it's probably extremely boring because that is all they have. And if you like maps you might consider buying one first so you can find the museum. Once you know where it is it will be easy ;-)

After our visit we sat some time in their small but beautiful garden. The sun was finally shining! A lot of big dragonflies were hunting there too.
All in all it was a great day (except for my wet socks) and I'm sure we'll visit St.-Niklaas again on another, sunnier day!

Pukkelpop Friday (18-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Our last festival this year! What did we see this time?


The Dears
- a pretty brilliant band, they were better at Werchter but they are still good!

Carl Craig
- part of the holy trinity of Detroit Techno and rightly so ;-)

Anthony Rother
- the godfather of electro, lovely indeed!

Scisssor Sisters
- gay in every way, I feel like dancing ;-)

Dresden Dolls
- brilliant!!! and even better than Werchter last year!

Black Strobe
- dark French electro-techno-goth-dance music and I love it!

The Frames
- very Irish indeed, nice songs, good show

The Raconteurs
- steady as they go ;-) Much better live than on cd!

Twilight Singers
- this was just heaven! Perfect view with perfect songs!

Ministry
- this is the definition of industrial noise! Praise Ministry!!

Dave Clarke
- some great techno to end the night dancing ;-)

Summer of Photography (Bozar, Brussels, 17-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

It seems to be the summer of photography and because of the amuseevous project we got a free ticket to visit the exhibits in the bozar which would otherwise cost 10 euro's each ;-D

There are two exhibits in the bozar:
- In the picture (photojournalism in 'de Morgen', a Belgian newspaper)
- Click double click (the documentary factor)

The two exhibits are very nice for a lover of photography but otherwise not worth 10 euro's. So if you can get a free visit you should go but otherwise just see the pictures online or something => http://www.summerofphotography.be/

Royal Library of Belgium (Brussels, 17-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

If you want a carefree trip into Belgian (bureaucratic) surrealism I would recommend a visit to this library. The building is a 70's monster with the disgusting brownish grey carpet you see in many older museums here too. And it's a labyrinth as well with many weird and forgotten corners. Getting lost will be no problem here!

We know there are two exhibits about Bruegel here and even the information about those online and in folders varies...
Finding the tickets is fairly easy after asking where to get them. But once you have them you still have to put your bag in the cloakroom which is of course back down the stairs.
Luckily the other exhibit is also downstairs somewhere so we follow the signs there to see that one (Bruegel Imagined) first. On our way there we get to see something of the history of book-printing scattered in the halls and stairways leading to the room.

The first exhibit is an imaginary museum with very good quality true to size reproductions of Bruegel paintings. His works are very impressive indeed! Even though I've already seen a few in museums there are still some un-known treasures to be seen for real some day.

Going back upstairs for the other exhibit (Bruegel prints) we come across another free exhibit in a big room with an unclear function (and a corridor towards toilets). In this room is also a window behind which there is a true size reproduction of some Belgian writer's writing room. Nice but pretty weird...

The exhibit with the Bruegel prints is in the only old part of the library: the Nassau-chapel (see pic, outside window) which is quite small but a perfect setting for these prints.
All these prints and even some of the sketches for them belong to the library.
I'm sure this library has a truly impressive collection according to the books and cards they sell. One day I must certainly get a library card here (20 euro's according to the site) to gain entrance to the medieval manuscripts (and yes I am drooling).

The exhibits will end the 26th of august but I'm sure there will be new ones soon! Check the site: http://www.kbr.be

Behind door number one... (Bozar)

17-8-2006

Antwerp Central

Antwerp Central train station, 15-8-2006

Fotomuseum Antwerpen (15-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Yes another visit to the fotomuseum and it's free again (amuseevous).

Two brilliant exhibits:
- Mark Lagrange (see picture), a fashion photographer who makes brilliantly beautiful and flashy scenes.
- Flip Books: those are just so much fun!

Exhibits un-till 10-9-2006. Info at http://www.fotomuseum.be

Have fun with your free visit ;-)

Homo Faber (Fabre exhibits KMSKA & MUHKA, 15-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Fabre is one of my favorite Belgian artists so I have seen many of his artworks and special exhibits. Still every time there is an exhibit you will be amazed by some new work or some old work you have never seen before.
We most certainly never heard the two songs he made and which they played in the Muhka. And they were actually quite good too (very '80's dark wave)!


And then there are the big installations which you can only really see by being inside of them (or smell in case of the onions hanging in condoms).
So much surreallistic fun! I'm not even sure it's legal ;-)


The exhibit in the Muhka has finished already (see some works here).
But you will still be able to see the exhibit in the KMSKA un-till 3-9-2006. And that part is free with amuseevous!

Iggy Pop & the Stooges (Marktrock 13-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

NOW I WANNA BE YOUR DOG !!! *




* rock&roll perfection doesn't need much comment ;-)




p.s. we also saw Dear Leader (former Sheila Divine) which was rather nice too

Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands

Animalpark (near Eindhoven)

Van Abbemuseum (Modern art museum, Eindhoven, 13-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

Very nice architecture, some brilliant sights, nice exhibits, interesting art, big collection, cool building, nice loo's...

....mmm what else?

Well it's just a very nice modern art museum which is worth a visit every once in a while ;-)

Multilingual info at http://www.vanabbemuseum.nl/

Free visit info at amuseevous.be

Zoo near Eindhoven (Dierenrijk Europa, 12-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

This is a very new zoo which is focused on European animals. It isn't very big but it's a nice place to have a walk and see some nice animals like wolves, foxes, beavers, polar bears etc. Perfect for an afternoon stroll!


We went there to celebrate Erik's birthday so we had a good time anyway ;-)
(Except for all the irritating wasps that kept following us ;-p)


Dutch info: http://www.dierenrijkeuropa.nl/

Ode to the Moon

The moon (most full) as seen through our windows and on our balcony

Night of the Living Dead (Lokerse feesten 9-8-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

As I awoke from my slumber this morning and opened my coffin I knew it would be a glorious day for I always love the nights of the full moon. As the veil of dreams slowly lifted from my brain I started to remember why this would be an even more glorious night for tonight we would go and see the grandfathers of Goth!!
But they would only arise from their tomb at 22:30 so there was much to do and see before...

At 20:00 the Belgian electro-techno-rock duo Nid&Sancy would start their set but sadly we were too late for that because we had to wait for the bus. Their set was only half an hour and we have seen them before so we didn't miss much.

At about 21:00 The Cramps started their sleazy sex&rock&roll party. They share a nice tomb somewhere on a cemetery in the southern USA. We should visit them some time because they can surely make the dead dance.
And as it was getting dark slowly the moon started creeping out from behind the stage...

Finally somewhere past 22:30 Bauhaus entered. I remember visiting the actual Bauhaus school in Berlin once. It was a very hot day and the sun was blazing setting the white building almost alight...
This Bauhaus however sets us alight with liquid darkness.

And as darkness crept over all of us the full moon finally started shining from behind the clouds. And suddenly they lost half the power on stage so we had to wait for it to be fixed.
Luckily they did fix it and Bauhaus came back for some more songs once more proving that they are the grandfathers of us all.

At about 0:15 it was time for Daan (who is of-course, as the name suggests, brilliant). He ended the night with some sensitive songs and danceable sounds. We left a bit earlier to get the bus back to our car.

And as we drove home the moon was still shining brightly upon us making us more alive in this night of the living dead...

National Park 'De Hoge Veluwe'

23-7-2006

Artis Zoo

22-7-2006

National Park Hoge Veluwe (23-7-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

An unique place in the Netherlands! Not only does this national park include many forms of unique landscapes there's also a museum with an impressive modern art collection. It's the perfect combination of culture and nature and therefor the perfect place for us ;-)

Another great thing is the fact that you can use free bikes in the park so you don't need your car to get in. You just pay the entrance fee of the park, grab a bike and start cycling. And for us the museum was free (www.amuseevous.be).

The Kröller-Müller (as is the official name of the museum) has an impressive collection of modern art, mainly Van Goghs. They also have a large sculpture garden. And they serve great sandwiches ;-)
There's also a free museum in the park about the park and the animals. Another man made structure you should visit is the hunting lodge St.-Hubertus.
And the nature is just great: many many trees, a sand drift, heath lands...

If you ever have the time to visit this national park you should! Or just visit the site and learn about the history and the nature here

Artis Zoo (Amsterdam, 22-7-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

A great day:

During the months of July and August the Artis zoo (full name: Natura Artis Magistra) is open un-till the sun sets every saturday night.
This is perfect for us! We get to visit museums un-till they close at 17:00 and then we still have loads of time to visit the zoo! Another perfect thing is the fact that because of our local zoo's season ticket we get to visit this zoo for free. Can it get any better?

Of course it can! We saw many nice animals ànd we had great food in the zoo.
Animal highlights:
- the black jaguar
- the owls
- the vultures
- the reptiles
- the insects
- the 3 elephants; mother, father and child who where totally showing off
- the three day old giraffe (very cute!)
- the aquarium
- mmm well actually all animals were great ;-)

Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam, 22-7-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Another one of my favorite museums, especially in the ethnographic department. This is not a traditional ethnographic museum and that is exactly what makes it so great. This museum is not afraid to show ancient art combined with current local kitsch. This way you learn and feel more about different cultures around the world than you would normally. It's for instance a lot of fun to see local African or Latin-American shops totally recreated. Or to watch Mexican Lucha Libre on the tv ;-)

We didn't have a lot of time to visit the museum (we had to wait before we could cross the street too because it was raining extremely hard; quite impressive thunderstorm and it cooled us down) so we saw the special exhibit about Hinduism (Dealing with the Gods) and some Latin-America.

We had a lot of fun and the special exhibit was very beautiful as usual. This museum is always worth a visit, especially if it's for free ;-) (www.amuseevous.be)
The English museum site here

Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 22-7-2006)

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

Like a lot of museums the real Stedelijk Museum is currently being renovated so they moved to another location near the central station of Amsterdam. I had not been to the new temporary location yet even though the SM (yes that is their official abbreviation; it used to be on the tags you got in the wardrobe, the towels etc.) is one of my favorite museums. But then again I moved to Belgium some time after they moved and I haven't been in Amsterdam a lot recently.

This temporary location is in an old post office building which actually looks more like some kind of apartment building. It's pretty hot inside too by the way.
But it's another free visit (www.amuseevous.be) so it doesn't matter if we wont stay long ;-)

My favorite way of visiting modern art, and especially the SM, is to let myself be flooded by visual information. So not much reading just walking around and looking and not too slow either. It makes you feel the art rather than understand it.
And it was a nice visual flooding ;-)

The site of the SM here (also available in English!)
There are only temporary exhibits on this location. Some include parts of their collection. The real museum opens again in the autumn of 2008.

Nightwatching

During our Rembrandt-day in Amsterdam we visited the Rembrandtsquare and ate a sandwich behind the bronze 3-D Nightwatch.
Nightwatching is the name of the Peter Greenaway project by the way (visit his site or see Rijksmuseum review)