I have a list of museums, art and otherwise, that I still want to see in Berlin. Berlin is full of art, small and large museums, personal and national collections. Ana is not so into art museums so my list is for a day when I have nothing else to do, a want of adventure, and a day Ana is working.

Yesterday I bought a ticket to Museum Berggruen. What was a personal collection from Herr Berggruen has become a national collection in two museum buildings with an exhibit every once in a while. This museum is famous in Berlin for its collection of Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso and Klee. Some of my favs. Definitely on my list. There is a stray Dali or two, some Magritte and a few other artists but a wide collection of the big four. I bought a ticket at the student price ahead online and picked my afternoon time to go.

Then I mapped out a way to get there. It is across from the Palace in Charlottenburg. This is pretty far from us.

I mapped it out and looked at my options and realized that perhaps I shouldn’t have bought a ticket.

Why you ask? Because this map represents about 50 minutes of a trip, mostly on public transit and more and more we see numbers of infections are going up with Corona. Yesterday the Senate released a number of new restrictions, including all University work going back online completely (yup, another semester online for me) and certain streets all over the city you must wear masks, and all markets outside now you must wear masks. Christmas markets will be a different thing this year but still happening so far. There is still the no selling of alcohol after 11pm and before 6am in place and the restrictions from before. Oh and no more than 5 people can gather and only from two households. I saw today that some restaurants that have reopened have gone back to delivery only. We are regressing. It seems as though lockdown may be right around the corner again, especially as numbers have never been higher than now, even in the beginning.

But I booked a ticket and my day was free and the art was calling. Ana and I talked about it and I decided to go. If it was crowded I would get the heck out but early afternoon shouldn’t be a problem.

I think this is the last time in a while that I will get to adventure or should for a bit to a place across the city.

It wasn’t crowded and all were masked. In fact, the museum itself only had about three people in it the entire time besides those watching over the art. I wandered and lost myself in painting after painting. I took my sweet time lingering over ones I wanted to.

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I chatted with the ones who were watching the rooms and the art since I was the only one around. I took in Klee and Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne and then went outside to look at the Palace again. The clouds were looming but the trees changing color so I took a moment but then headed home before the trains could get crowded with people heading home from work.

What a weird time it is right now! On one hand lockdown is looming and on the other hand, Corona fatigue has its hands on us as people go about their business ignoring the sky rocketing numbers. How can we stay home when the world hasn’t shut down even though we should? Every day feels like a million decisions and no one knows the best or right or even most cautious way. The answer is just taking it step by step by step. Each day the answers shift and change depending on what is before us right now.

In the meantime, I will honor the art but maybe from this distance.