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Hamburg – Elbphilharmonie und Laeiszhalle Hamburg

The new building of the Elbphilharmonie’s concert hall in Hamburg’s HafenCity quarter is world famous by now, and not just for stage first-class musical performances. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, and proudly situated on the Grasbrook peninsula on the Elbe River, it is one of the largest and most acoustically advanced concert halls in the world. It seats over 2000 people in its grand hall, offering a sound acoustic that’s second to none. Attracting big name performers in all music genres from classical music to Jazz, this is a state-of-the-art building with…a state-of-the-art organ! Its constructor Phillip Klais has actually created an organ ‘you can touch’ in the Grand Hall, honouring the idea, that ‘a concert hall is for everyone’. We absolutely love it – a true witness of how modern technology, combined with modern architecture can make music come alive from all centuries for all people (elbphilharmonie.de)

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Royal Shakespeare Company: Comedy Of Errors from 13 July – 31 Dec’21

#theatre

The Royal Shakespeare Company is indeed part of the British institution. With their own venue, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, situated in Stratford-upon-Avon, they’ll be bringing out three new plays by ‘good ‘ole Bill’ in 2020: A Winter’s Tale, Pericles and The Comedy of Errors. The Swan Theatre is will also be showing three plays as part of the ‘Europa Project’ in order to celebrate the UKs relationship with Europe…which is lovely! Forget Brexit, there are no borders when it comes to art (rsc.org.uk)

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Nederlands Dans Theatre Season Preview 2019/20

#moderndance
The Nederlands Dans Theatre is one of the most productive dance companies in Europe. On a par with the world’s best, every season they create stunning performances to critical acclaim worldwide. Both, the NDT1 and NDT2 do not just tour Europe, but also Asia, the United States and Australia on an annual basis. They have attracted over 115.000 dance and ballet fans to see them perform live. Both groups are considered as two of the most distinguished dance ensembles around, showcasing truly incredible talent on stage. They travel the world, together with their artistic team, tech staff and wardrobe dressers, so make sure you check their calendar to catch them perform near you or see them somewhere else in either France, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Canada, Russia or Spain and make a trip out of it.

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In rehearsal with Crystal Pite at the Paris Opera Ballet

#choreographer
Born in Canada, she has created a first class reputation for herself in leading opera houses around the world. She trained at the Frankfurt Ballet and is steeped in the dance language of Forsythe, Mats Ek and Kylián. She last was at the Paris Opera Ballet in 2016, where she created ‘The Seasons Canon’ to critical acclaim. Now back in Paris, she has created a series of one-hour-long performances, divided up into choreographed sequences. Her choreographies are exuberant, emotional and full of physical charge, expecting her dancers to perform beyond limits. Watch the video to feel the fast-paced vibe in rehearsal…

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2020 UCI World Track Championships pres. by Tissot in Berlin from 26 Feb – 1 March

This sport is about tactics, strategy and power surges on 2 wheels! Needing a game plan is just as important as knowing when to sprint, so watching this sport extremely entertaining. Disciplines for men and women include time trial, keirin, individual pursuit, team pursuit, points race, scratch race, sprint, omnium. Men have an added discipline to compete in: the Madison.

With the world’s elite descending on Berlin for these 5 days, the schedule is packed in the German capital’s velodrome. Berlin is known as the international media of cycling, hosting a whole series of national and international high-profile events. The track has actually been rebuilt to UCI’s new safety rules in 2017, resulting in the whole track having been relayed with Siberian Wood! The luxury of it all…but, it definitely is a fantastic venue, so if track cycling is your thing, sort yourselves with tickets pronto.

Berlin Velodrome

Berlin built its indoor track at the velodrome originally for the Olympic Games in 2000! Designed by internationally renown French architect Dominique Perrault, it is 250m long, its surface is Siberian spruce, it is 2,50m wide and features an inclination of 13 – 45 degrees. Right, techie stuff out the way, the velodrome has hosted many an exciting, high-profile competition apart from the Olympic Games, including the European Track Championship, several World Track Championships and a very authentic, local race, which is known as the Berlin 6-day race.

City attractions

Welcoming the world with open arms to any occasion, whether it’s Coldplay playing the Olympic Stadium, raving at legendary dance clubs like the Berghain or Watergate, or just enjoying excellent shopping and having a brilliant time in the city that boasts around 3000 lakes, the competing athletes will have to wait until the end of racing, until they can enjoy what else Berlin has to offer.

World Cup Disciplines

The schedule is gruelling, packing in 8 disciplines (time trial, kern, individual pursuit, team pursuit, points race, scratch race, sprint and omnium) to be competed in over only 5 days for men’s and women’s racing. Will world records be upheld, titles lost or new ones gained? Track cycling has produced high-profile sports stars like Sir Chris Hoy, who has done masses to publicise the sport and find new fans. He presented GB not just at several of the Olympic Games, but also the World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

Interesting fact file: he loves speed so much, that he is now in motor sport, racing cars! Take this opportunity to travel to Berlin and find out more about this great city after hours, when all the day’s hard work and excitement on the race track is done with (visitberlin.de)

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Rugby Union: Guiness Six Nations from 01 Feb – 14 March 2020

#sixnations #rugbyunion
With England having lost in the final of the World Cup against South Africa, will they use the 21st edition of the Six Nations Championship to boost their morale and get back into winning mode? This competition is a local one for them, but no less thrilling to win. Staged in each of the country’s big crowd stadia, winning this annual competition is a matter pride in the Northern Hemisphere.

Six Nations European venues

Emotions will be riding high in Twickenham (England), the headquarters of rugby worldwide, the Stade de France in Paris, the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, the Millennium stadium in Cardiff (Wales), Murrayfield in Edinburgh (Scotland) and Stadio Olympico in Rome. The Six Nations Championship is the oldest competition in world rugby, which makes it such a hotly contested series.

Who will be favourite to win?

Wales won the Grand Slam last year and are the current champions. Having had their fingers burnt in Japan by SA in the recent World Cup, they’ll be only to keen to put one over England again, who are also smarting, having lost the final. The fixtures are out already, so check them in order to plan ahead. Bear in mind, that you can’t discount the Irish, who won 2 years ago, but this time around every single nation will be up for it this time around, as they all showed their positive intent in Japan.

Rugby’s Oldest Cup

Quite apart from the Grand Prix of the Six Nations, there are numerous annual traditional competitions between the partaking nations, none more so than oldest in the world, which is England versus Scotland for the Kalkutta Cup, the oldest cup in rugby, dating back 180 years.
Every single capital welcoming this rugby fest is worth spending a long weekend in, so travel guides at the ready, to make it an even better experience. Tickets to the various tests over 5 rounds of matches are worth gold dust, so don’t hang about and get your entries as soon as possible.

Bon voyage et bonne chance…