2010-10 Stuttgart, DE

October 11 - 15, 2010 (five full days with travelling days on each side)

Contact Person: Wol Euler

This is still in early stages, many of the ideas I had for the retreat changed as a result of conversations or experiences on Malta. I'd like to present the current thinking and get feedback from guardians, particularly those who might wish to attend.

Dates are pretty firmly fixed, it will be in the week starting 11 October; however we are considering making it a full week of retreating, meaning that people would arrive on the weekend of 9&10 Oct and leave on the following weekend.

The location is trickier because many factors overlap. My first thought was to hold the retreat in Munich, because there is an intercontintental airport there, convenient for travellers from North America, and to have the chance to go into the city for meals and cultural distractions. Pema suggested that travelling should not be an issue: we could just as well have everyone meet up the day before, and take a bus to the retreat centre. That would mean that we could meet at a place near Stuttgart which hosts workshops, where I've been before: nice accomodation, good catering, warm workrooms (waves to Arabella), countryside to walk around in; on the other hand, this is a larger place so it might be too expensive for a small group, and it's on a hilltop at the end of an hour-long bus ride from the nearest town. That would be a very concentrated retreat: no daily travelling (no buying cookies in the morning), no food or drinks bar that provided by the centre, probably no self-catering. That might be a bit much for seven days.

Quick poll (answer by e-mail to wol.euler at yahoo dot de or by inworld IM): do we like the idea of a totally concentrated retreat, cut off from everything, or is having a break between retreat and eat/sleep each night preferable?