On Berlin’s biannual Long Nights of the Museum (Lange Nacht der Museen), nearly all of the city’s many museums stay open until 2:00 am. A single ticket buys universal admission as well as unlimited public transportation for the night. The winter event was held the weekend before last–as it happened, by the light of the year’s brightest biggest moon.

My girlfriend and I went to the Museum für Naturkunde. It was the night’s only stop thanks to a late start, but I have absolutely no regrets. The Museum für Naturkunde is charming and old-school. In contrast to so many technologically overwrought,  super child-friendly museums one sees these days, the Museum für Naturkunde’s shabby treasures speak for themselves.

It was the perfect museum to see by night. The crowds were out in full force, sipping pink cocktails under the world’s largest fossil brachiosaur–but in the moments we were alone, the old museum by night felt forbidden and magical.

Check out amazingly cute dead animals like these at the Museum für Naturkunde by day, or wait for the summer event on August 28, 2010.