“We have art in order not to die of the truth.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Tuesday
Breakfast at our apartment. It is nice to have a kitchen.
Into the city early in search for coffee before the gallery opens.
The first stop is Mörder. It has an alternative look which is often a good sign.
A false flag. The coffee was criminally bad. I have licked asphalt that tastes better.
We move on to Mod Rockers Roastery and Bagels.
A much better result despite the name.
We walk to the gallery and it is disappointing to see a long line. Waiting in line, tourists, crowds and the like are not my strength.
I am ware of the hypocrisy of the tourist complaining about tourists.
“…a tourist can’t help but have a distorted opinion of a place: he meets unrepresentative people, has unrepresentative experiences, and runs around imposing upon the place the fantastic mental pictures he had in his head when he got there.”
Michael Lewis
Maybe Budapest and Italy set a high bar, but the Alte Nationalgalerie was underwhelming.
Perhaps it was the current exhibition is Caspar Davis Friedrich and I have no love for the landscape.
Most likely I simply have a poor understanding of art.
Hans Markart
Augeste Renoir, Chestnut in Blossom
Max Liebermann, Flower Perennials on Gardners House & Ury Lesser, Nollendorfpalz by Night
Ferdinand Hodler
Adolph Menzel
We start for our apartment. Shell has an appointment with the hair stylist and I need to catch up on these entries.
I collect Shell. Her stylist is in a building filled with Peter Lindenberg work.
Just another building filled with pulchritudinous works.
Dinner tonight at Café Nö Wine Bar.
It is a lovely evening. We order a carafe of house wine to start with our sardellen tarte. A tasty tart with anchovies.
For main, Shell orders the grillgarnelen and I get the gegrilltes fleisch. Both the beef and the prawns are cooked at the table in alcohol and sugar.
We order a more expensive wine and are rewarded with wine glasses that have not come from a grandmother’s buffet.
We ask for the dessert menu.
A few minutes later dessert arrives. There is no menu, there is just the dessert of the day.
Crème Brûlée with mango sorbet.
Tomorrow we leave Berlin.
I don’t think I will come back to visit.
The next time I am in Berlin, I will be living here.
