2010-10 Stuttgart, DE

October 10 - 16, 2010 (five full days plus a travelling day on each side, i.e. six nights)

Contact Person: Wol Euler   wol dot euler at yahoo dot de

The retreat has now ended, and reports are being collected on the Retreat reports subpage.

This will be a five-full-day retreat, arriving Sunday October 10 (or earlier*) and leaving Saturday October 16 (or later*). October in Germany is unpredictable, it could be warm and sunny or uncomfortably chilly, so bring sweaters and a scarf and your slippers. 

Stuttgart airport (IATA code: STR) handles continental flights only, if you are coming from North America you will be changing planes at a major hub, typically in Frankfurt. I can meet you at the airport or train station, please contact me directly.

The place

The retreat will be held at Hofgut Rineck near Heidelberg (Google Maps image, their website (in German)), which is set on a working farm run on Demeter principles. It will be a "concentrated" retreat as in California last year, where we eat, sleep, sit and breathe in a single location. There will be no travelling (except on the first and last days) and thus no shopping, so bring your toys and cookies with you. All meals during the retreat will be taken at Rineck (vegetarian, no smoking, no alcohol; special dietary needs can be met if arranged in advance). As well as hosting retreats and other events, Rineck also has a wellness centre and teaches Prana yoga; depending on how busy they are in October, it may be possible for retreaters to attend yoga sessions too. There is WLAN internet access in the room where we'll meet and in many of the bedrooms.

The plan 

We will gather in Stuttgart on Sunday October 10, and have dinner together that evening. After breakfast on Monday, we travel by train to Rineck, arriving around lunchtime. By the way, this is a regional train: there is no porter, no conductor, no buffet car and no reservations. Plan to travel light as you will be moving your own bags. If you will be travelling elsewhere in Europe before or after the retreat, bring two bags and leave the larger one at the hotel in Stuttgart.

We will remain in Rineck until Friday late afternoon/early evening, when we take the train back to Stuttgart. We will have a late-ish dinner at a local restaurant — with meat and alcohol (optional but encouraged) — and possibly a walking tour around the bars and cafes. Breakfast on Saturday October 16 will be the final official event of the retreat.

The price

The current estimate of the cost is 630€ per person excluding airfare (US$785, Can$835, UK£545), plus another 50€ or so to cover both evening meals in Stuttgart. This is still provisional and will depend on several factors, including the number of people who wish to attend; however we do have firm quotes from Rineck and the Stuttgart hotel, so the final price is unlikely to be very different.

The price of accomodation at Rineck is based on single rooms. Two people sharing a room would save 60€ each; three people sharing a room would save 100€ each. If you would be interested in sharing, please make a note after your name, and we can try to fit people together.

There is a PayPal button at the Kira Institute Play as Being Real Life Retreats page: use that to make payments for retreat fees (check with Wol about other, more direct forms of payment).

The people

Wol

Pema

Eos

Lia

Bertram 

Yakuzza

* Stuttgart is an excellent starting point for a quick tour of Europe: you can be in Paris by train in under four hours, or in Rome in eleven; Munich and Strasbourg are under three hours away; the whole of Switzerland is within five hours of here. For that matter you could just come a day or two early and see the city. I'd be happy to help with arrangements before or after the retreat.