With Empor Berlin
Opportunities to play bridge in English in Berlin in the first half of 2025
Last updated: 17 January AM. Will be changed and updated regularly.
ing the weeks where for one reason or the other there is no bridge course at VHS. Where nothing else is stated, we aim at arrivals from 18.15, ready to start playing at 18.30, but for those who can only come later, that is also OK. We’ll start playing as soon as enough people have arrived.
The occasional opportunities to play bridge privately in the weeks where VHS is closed, are marked with *** below.
2025 courses now online for registration:
Course starting Friday 17 January: https://www.vhsit.berlin.de/VHSKURSE/BusinessPages/CourseDetail.aspx?id=725702
Course starting Wednesday 22 January: https://www.vhsit.berlin.de/VHSKURSE/BusinessPages/CourseDetail.aspx?id=743390
Week 3: Friday 17 January VHS 1/10
Week 4: Wednesday 22 January VHS 1/10, and Friday 24 January VHS 2/10
Week 5: Wednesday 29 January VHS 2/10, and Friday 31 January VHS 3/10
***Week 6: The option to play at my place on either Wednesday 5 or Friday 7 February
Week 7: Wednesday 12 February VHS 3/10, and Friday 14 February 4/10
Week 8: Wednesday 19 February VHS 4/10, and Friday 21 February 5/10
Week 9: Wednesday 26 February VHS 5/10, and Friday 28 February 6/10
Week 10: Wednesday 5 March VHS 6/10, and Friday 7 March 7/10
Week 11: Wednesday 12 March VHS 7/10, and Friday 14 March VHS 8/10
Week 12: Wednesday 19 March VHS 8/10, and Friday 21 March VHS 9/10
Week 13: Wednesday 26 March VHS 9/10, and Friday 28 March VHS 10/10
Week 14: Wednesday 2 April VHS 10/10
***Week 15:
***Week 16: (Friday 18 April is Good Friday)
***Week 17: 21 April is Easter Monday. As far as I am concerned, we can play any day 21, 22, 23, or 24 April.
***Week 18: No bridge at my place
Week 19: New courses now available for registration: Course starting Wednesday 7 May here, and course starting Friday 9 May here.
The best ways to keep informed are
- ask to be placed on the teacher, Rob Crouch’s, mailing list if you are not already on it;
- keep an eye on this website post;
- check out the group on Facebook here; on nebenan here; and in the games group on InterNations here.
Comments? Questions? Attending but don’t know my address yet? E-mail me here.
City walk with Empor Berlin 16 January
From S Südende to S Yorckstraße with Eckehard Heiber.
In progress, photos to come.
Birdwatching in Blankenfelde Botanical Garden 14 January
With Bernd Rolle, Umweltbüro für Berlin-Brandenburg, found in Umweltkalender.
The park was almost empty, and I was the only attendant, so that was a very pleasant walk in – for me -lovely winter landscape and perfect winter weather, except light conditions could have been better in terms of bird photography.
In addition to the usual suspeccts – pigeons, crows, great tits, blue tits, blackbirds, and spotted woodpeckers, we saw several nuthatches, jays, chaffinks, – and my first ever black woodpecker! Unfortunately, the photos are not good. I will go back on a brighter day and hope to see it again now that I know what to look for.
Greifswald January
Main purpose: walk on Saturday 11 January with Eckehard Heiber, Empor Berlin.
I took a couple of “spookey” photos on the – smooth and punctual – train journey on the RE3. After checking in to a lovely little hotel on the waterfront in Wieck, about 20 minutes by bus from the train Station, I went on a walk in the area, a.o. to the ruins of Eldena Abbey. I saw some ducks I don’t think I have ever seen in the wild before. I also tried to take some photos for a workshop on abstract photography, provided by Artistravel.
Day 2 city walk with Empor Berlin
Despite the blizzard and the storm which the meteorologists forgot to tell us about, it was an interesting walk, led by Eckehard Heiber.
For lunch, we took shelter in a nice Chinese restaurant, and later we had more opportunity to get warm and dry during a guided tour of parts of the university, by a guide called Zbig (short fo Zbigniew, I assume).
Since I do like a maritime flair, I even enjoyed the visit to museum harbour.
When I returned to Wieck, there were local flood warnings and Sperrwerk Greifswald was closed completely – apparently a very rare occurrence.
When I arrived on Friday, in mild, sunny weather, I asked the receptionist at the hotel, whom I think was the proprietor or owner, whether the weather on Saturday was going to be as nice as it was on that Friday, and he said yes, pretty much, perhaps a little bit of snow, but definitely stable. I never saw him again. Perhaps he committed harakiri.
Day 3 walkabout in the immediate surroundings and another visit to Museum Harbour. Lovely weather, so I walked back to Wieck along the river. Strongly considering prolonging my stay.
By the way – a bonus tip: “Zbig” recommended “the best cakes in Greifswald” – reportedly in Caféhaus Marimar, Markt 11. I had a look, and their cakes did indeed look delicious.
Day 4 had breakfast during a spectacular sunrise. A walk around Wieck. Return to Berlin. Experimenting black&white vs colour.
European Month of Photography Berlin 2025
Activities in internations.org on the occasion of EMOP 2025:
25 January: Three exhibitions in Mitte: “a different view of the Berlin Wall”, “abstract concrete”, and “new photos of ancient architecture”: https://www.internations.org/activity-group/5623/activity/615867
1 February: African Contemporary Photography: https://www.internations.org/activity-group/5623/activity/615886
7 February: Three exhibitions in Kreuzberg: https://www.internations.org/activity-group/5623/activity/615891
28 February: Three exhibitions in Friedrichshain: https://www.internations.org/activity-group/5623/activity/615889
And that is before the official month of photography has even started :-).
14 March: Two places of study with a walk in between: https://www.internations.org/activity-group/5623/activity/616679
22 March: A museum and a repurposed exhibition space: https://www.internations.org/activity-group/5623/activity/616691
28 March: Four galleries in Mitte: https://www.internations.org/activity-group/5623/activity/615896
29 March: Three galleries in Charlottenburg: https://www.internations.org/activity-group/5623/activity/616682
“Making Greenland Great Again”?
If USA is really interested in “making Greenland great again”, instead of oppressing Greenland and acting like colonial overlords and perpetrating experiments like the “Little Danes Experiment” and the birth control scandal of the 1960s, and generally treating Greenland like shit – then why not? And if the Danish authorities are outraged now, they should have thought about that during the past century.
Here we go again ……
To all those, especially in the media, who are getting their knickers in a twist over the fact that Ahmed al-Sharaa “refused to shake hands” with Annalena Baerbock and calling it a scandal: get over yourselves and don’t be so melodramatic.
The only scandal is that apparently, Germany’s foreign minister was too ignorant to have predicted this AND her entire protocol department as well, since they obviously failed to brief her to make sure she did not look like a fool during “the incident”.
Makes one wonder if international relations in general are in good hands in Germany.
Winter birds in Tiergarten 5 January
An annual event with Derk Ehlert, NABU, – by some newspapers called “Berlin’s Wildlife God” :-).
The weather was not as miserable as in previous years. Apart from the usual suspects – crows, pigeons and sparrows, we saw (in many cases had to take Derk Ehlert’s word for it) blue, long-tailed and great tits, nuthatches (photo). jays, “Kernbeißer” (?), a goshawk and a buzzard (which initially startled me as much as I startled him (photos)).
I of course also had to indulge my obsession with trees especially at this time of year.
And finally, almost home, I like this tree in winter too: