Well, to literally cut it short – our resident arborist Jürgen and a team of helpers took down the line of big trees separating the 2nd House from the parking lot. To improve the view, secure the house and to bring bright sunshine into the rather dark dormitories. New trees have been planted already and more are still to come. It’s about time to do all this, since there is already the first snow on the mountain tops…

Okay, from the outside it might look a bit like a battlefield at the moment – with the tree logs and the not yet finished new roof. However, EC residents Charlotte and Tamás immediately inspected the new view across the mountain meadows and the lake from the dormitory windows. They were obviously delighted with the result of the “tree action”!

And as if it had not been enough action and challenge already, the guys afterwards tried some rope acrobatics in the garden…

Sunday night brought the beginning of a whole week dedicated entirely to talks and lectures with and by Lama Ole about 40 years of bringing Diamond Way Buddhism to the West. Lama Ole and friends will recall stories from the past and explain the reasons and backgrounds of developments and decisions made that formed the way we practice Buddhism today. Please join in via live streaming if you cannot be here!

So here’s a walk around the cafeteria tent with the “World’s Best” shop, the “Meet & Connect” area, coffee bar, the “I Grow EC” stand and Paul’s famous job center – as well as some impressions from the communication team meeting in our “Baucafe” and from the kitchen tent – with pretty much everything ready to go for the course!

We’re very much looking forward to welcoming you here within the next days. However, if you cannot make it to Allgäu this time, you can still join in via live streaming from the lectures with Lama Ole during the Transmission Week and by watching the space on this blog, of course! We’ll keep you updated as well as we can.

Putting up the huge tents in just a few hours despite pouring rain, preparing and serving three delicious meals each day to a lot of very hard working and hungry friends, organizing and coordinating, shutteling people up and down the hill, doing laundry and making beds, driving ten-ton-trucks, forklifts and containers back and forth whereever they’re needed, keeping the houses in shape and running… there’s absolutely no way of mentioning all the activities going on during the course preparations. And above all, there is still enough time to meditate, listen to travel teachers’ lectures and celebrate together as well, of course.

So we will just try to give you an idea of the fantastic atmosphere by posting some miscellaneous pictures taken during the last weeks… more to come during the next days! To all the helpers who have been here, are here at the moment and will be here during and after the course – thank you so much for your amazing support!

Our resident conservator Beate and a team of diligent and skilled helpers put great effort into the preservation of the almost 100 years old, monument-protected building all year around. It’s their everyday challenge to restore the art nouveau building according to both our needs as an International Buddhist center and the monument protection laws. The original antique furniture combines somewhat naturally with our statues and thangkas, and the “Inner Beauty” team has come up with amazing ways of finding inexpensive fabrics and interior pieces to brush up the looks of the house.

When you come to the Europe Center for the first time, please ask one of the residents to take you on a tour, we would be very happy to show you around. The house will be open during the summer course and we will organize guided tours to make sure everyone interested gets a chance to see our beautiful EC home anyway!

For now, here’s the photographic tour through the villa – welcome home!

Around 200 friends e.g. from the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Australia and Germany came for the 2nd Summer Course Build-up Weekend. Pretty close to the speed of light, they built up both the kitchen and the cafeteria tent. On Saturday, a downpour of app. 20l per squaremeter in 15 minutes only started when the tents already had their roof – so the installation of the wooden floor could continue despite the very wet conditions. When the sun was back on Sunday, we enjoyed breakfast and lunch on the terrace and went on with the work both on the 2nd House’s roof and the Summer Course areal after a long evening with an inspiring lecture on Buddhism by Kerstin, meditating together and enjoying a great party at the Baucafé.

The 3rd International EC Summer Course is getting very close – kicking of 03 August. Please remember to register online in time – and of course you’re more than welcome to join our build-up phase whenever and for how long you wish! Just send a mail in advance to join@europe-center.org to let us know about your stay.

The four stringplayers of the “Rossini Streichquartett”, pianist Fabio Ceroni of the Munich State Opera house and stunning mezzosoprano Sibylle Wolf gave sweeping performances of e.g. Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” or Gershwin’s famous “Rapsody in Blue”.

The matinée has become a wonderful EC tradition of winding up the statue exhibition with a cultural highlight for the region. We celebrated both with lots of homemade cake and coffee afterwards and are already looking forward to next year’s exhibiton and matinée. Many thanks to all the friends who made this such a joy and big success!

Our cook Fernando and his team take good care that our hard-working guys get nutricious and very tasty Italian food and cappuccino afterwards, and a bit of stretching in the evening does the rest to keep them fit for the next day on the roof. In time for the 3rd International Summer Course, the Second House will have a roof that surely is going to last for a very long time!