I have been neglecting Mr Canon for the last week or so, but have managed some exhibition visits from my list, making the best of the me-time when Max is out frolicking with Frank and friends so that his main daily walks are taken care of:
Haus am Lützowplatz is showing works by Clemens Krauss. The mural is a work in progress and will be completely finished for the end of the exhibition. The two outdoor sculptures are not by Krauss.
On my way there, passed this sculpture of Alexander von Humboldt in Budapester Straße which I have never noticed before:
Palais Populaire is showing an exhibition of Deutsche Bank’s Artists of the Year:
After the visit there I played tourist for a little while, taking a quick look at Berlin’s newest U-Bahn station and ambling down Unter den Linden, past the library, and up Friedrichstraße to Tränenpalast, which I had never visited before. They had let in too many people for my liking so I did not stay long, but long enough to notice the large number of young people visiting and seemingly very interested in the exhibits.
And finally, the Neue Nationalgalerie, designed by Mies van der Rohe, reopened after six or seven years renovation undertaken by David Chipperfield Architects. I had organised a visit on Internations and five of us met there to either see again or see for the first time their huge permanent collection, as well as their temporary exhibition of works by Alexander Calder.
And of course I have continued the dog walking routine making sure that Max gets as much exercise as possible, as outlined in a previous post. I am so glad to have Tempelhofer Feld within walking distance:
And also the option to vary our other walks. Many dogs not living in Berlin would envy Max the possibility to walk past so many of Berlin’s main sights at such regular intervals. Whether Max fully appreciates this priviledge is not clear to me ;-). But he is getting better and better at staying in one place while I walk away from him. At least he no longer goes completely berserk.
However, one area where he is not improving is the occasional lunging and barking, especially at people whom neither he nor I had heard coming, for example joggers passing us from behind. Also skaters are a big problem.
And today I wanted to join a guided walk from Kottbusser Brücke to Engelbecken, thinking I could take Max with me. While we were waiting at the meeting point I was reminded of the way Max does not like standing still in busy places. Whether it makes him feel vulnerable or whether he feels that I am and he has to protect me, I don’t know but he will invariably lunge and bark at anybody whom in his opinion get too close to us (and in some cases he is right, for example cyclists on the pavement but unfortunately it is not allowed to bite them). I therefore gave up joining the tour and we went our own way. I have to discuss this with Astrid the trainer when we meet next week, but I have heard that Podencos simply do not like to stand still (except for sleeping, which Max actually sometimes does standing up :-)).
Nevertheless, a couple of photos from this morning’s walk:
