Less than 24 hours into November 2008, Marci and I were already brought to appreciation for one of the unique Joys of November in Amsterdam:  the Museumnacht (Museum Night).

Amsterdam is an absolutely world-class museum city -- and one night per year, 41 of the city's museums open their doors from seven o'clock in the evening until two o'clock in the morning, with more than 200 activities (including interactive art, live music, tours, snacks, and so on) and tons of people wandering through the streets of central Amsterdam and packing the various trams and buses (which are free for the night).  Fortunately, Marci and I were able to secure a babysitter for the evening, and we hit the town together in style.

First, we stopped at the Huis Marseille, a photography museum located in an old canal house.  This is actually my favorite museum in Amsterdam, but Marci had never gotten the opportunity to visit it, so we made it our first stop (well, actually, we were originally going to start with the Rijksmuseum, which was celebrating the Dutch debut exhibition of an extravagent and controversial piece of "sculpture" by London artist Damien Hirst -- but the line was 3 or 4 people wide, over 300 meters long, in the rain... so we decided to skip it).  The Museumnacht festivities at the Huis Marseille were less-than-spectacular, and I didn't care so much for the work that was being exhibited...

So we didn't stay there very long before moving onto the Bijbelsmuseum, right around the corner.  Marci and I were both surprised that this museum dedicated to the Bible turned out to be a very "happening" place.  The spiral staircase carved out from the middle of the museum was jam-packed with people listening to the performance of a black gospel choir (which we heard but never got to see because of the crowds).  We checked out the garden and the aroma cabinet (both of which are worth the visit to the Bijbelsmuseum), and then decided to duck out and find someplace less crowded.  Finding a less-crowded museum on Museumnacht, however, is not so easy (it's crazy how much bigger the phenomenon of the Museumnacht has become since our last participation in the event -- which was probably four years ago, when the Museumnacht tradition was only a couple of years old).

We took a crowded tram down to Centraal Station and then walked to the NEMO, a science museum geared primarily toward children (very much like COSI, for those from Ohio who might appreciate the comparison).  There, we participated in a giant chain reaction (you know, where the dominos trip to switch to the fan which propels the sailboat across to prick the balloon which pops and drops a candle into position where its flame burns the rope that holds back the weight, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera) and tooled around for a little while before traveling to our final -- and best -- destination (though I didn't know it at the time).

Amsterdam's Portuguese Synagogue has a lot of history (it was built in the 1600s) and is a rather imposing structure located at a key crossroads in central Amsterdam (close to the Waterlooplein) -- but you'd never know it because no one ever talks about the place or even seems to know it's there.  I myself had never been inside the building and didn't even know that it was still in use as a synagogue.  But man -- it was an amazing experience to visit the Portuguese Synagogue on the Museumnacht.  The pictures on the Synagogue's site give you something of an idea for what it looks like -- but imagine this scene, with the synagogue's 1000 candles gently flickering, with several hundred people slowly cycling through the synagogue's interior, with all the men wearing white silk yarmulkes (which were supplied at the door as we came in), and with an eight-man choir dressed in top hats and tailcoats singing acapella hymns.  It was incredible.

I was definitely glad to be able to experience the Museumnacht (an experience that only happens once a year, in November) again with my beautiful wife.  I was very tired by the end of the night out.  But also very joyful.