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:

I don’t know how I have managed to live in Berlin for nearly six years and not walk around Schlachtensee. I still have not, but I did go to take a look at it and walk along part of it. I was a little bit pressed for time since I also wanted to take a look at Onkel Toms Ladenstraße and the weekly market there. Meh. Been there, done that.

But I will definitely return to Schlachtensee in order to walk all the way around it and also Krumme Lanke.

I discovered another dog park within walking distance from home, and since it is in Moabit, I took the opportunity to arrange to meet my friends who live nearby there and then go for an al fresco lunch in one of the many ethnic restaurants around Turmstraße.

The Moabit Hundegarten is probably the smallest I have been to so far, but it has shade, places to sit, and a water tap. Whether those facilities are enough to lure us back there, I don’t know. But perhaps the fact that Ahmed and Omar and many ethnic restaurants are nearby will help ;-). Also, in nice weather, the walk there is lovely. Here is a link to the route om mapmywalk.

Here is an impression of the dog park and of Max perfecting his recall.

And here are a couple of photos I took with my smartphone on the way there and during lunch:

Impressions.

Also took these two photos yesterday:

The annual excursion with fellow Berlin-based members of AIACE Deutschland took place in Karlshorst. First, a visit to the German-Russian Museum, then lunch in Restaurant Wernesgrüner, followed by a visit to the Amalien-Orgel in the evangelical church.

On the way, I passed the abandoned airport in Karlshorst.

The museum visit made me realise that being in a large-ish group of people indoors is no longer my kind of thing, so when I realised that the lunch was taking place indoors (who eats indoors with 20 people at the same table nowadays?), I skipped the rest of the programme and had lunch (table for one – outdoors :-)) at Restaurant India-House (not worth it – the food was as bland as German and Danish food), and then for a walkabout, past the Karlshorst bunker, on my way back to the station.

Not only was I not in spending-time-with-a-lot-of-people mode (I think Corona has done away with that once and for all), I clearly was also not in photography mode, but here are some impressions anyway:

While Max was out frolicking with Frank and friends, I went out frolicking with Mr Canon.