Notes from Puzzle Palace

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Heading home

We left Nuremberg and headed out to see a friend in Austria.  Stephan Baumegger has been making puzzles for many years now and I have been a great fan of his.  We had recently just purchased quite a few puzzles and I thought we might as well go pick them up in person.  

He and his lovely wife we so accommodating.  We had planned to visit for a few hours, see the workshop, pick up some puzzles and head out. Instead, they surprised us with a wonderful lunch!  

Stephan did give us the tour of his workshop as I requested, and it can be seen here and here.  They are 2 very long videos but really show his layout.  Below are a few photos that may be of interest.











I was impressed by the  puzzles he had on the walls, and the chickens thrilled me.  




What beautiful eggs they lay. 


For the record, I did pick up quite a few puzzles, but they are as yet, still unopened. I'm trying to get on top of things with unboxing and packaging and so far, it's not working.  :( I need to purchase a new Lightbox because the ones we had in the States are on the wrong voltage here. After lunch we said our goodbyes because we had a hotel booked in Zagreb that night.  

Why Zagreb?  Well because we can now.  No really, it is because of the game EuroRails.  Zagreb is one of the cities in the game and we have decided we would like to travel to every city.  There are 60 cities in the game and so far we have traveled to 43 of them so far.  A few more to go.  

What surprised me about Zagreb was the number of casinos.  Everywhere we turned we saw them.  Astounding.  While there we took the time to visit the Tesla Museum that was a few blocks from the hotel.
It was well worth the trip. I wish we had more time.  Next trip I guess.










Our next stop was Bologna to visit with Dario Uri and get a book signed.  While there we took some time out to see the city.  It appears the Bolognese are worried that their leaning tower will fall over soon so we wanted to see it before it was gone.  While thre we saw a few other sites as well. 










That night we met with Dario and his wife for dinner at a local place.  The food was delicious and the company was amazing.  We had such a wonderful time.  The following day, they brought us to their home where they had a small puzzle party with a few of their friends.  We spent the night puzzling and Giusi made an amazingly large dinner for us.  It was truly a wonderful night.







As we were leaving, Dario and Giusi both gave us an amazing gift.  Dario gave us his copy of Uri Blocks to add to the museum and Giusi gave us a hand made hanging that she made. Both are now given space where all can see them.  



These are both truly amazing gifts.  

Until next time....


Thursday, February 15, 2024

Nuremberg Toys Fair 2024

My apologies first for being so slow in posting.  We've had a busy month and it's just going to get worse for the foreseeable future. 

I've been wanting to come here for what feels like 1/2 of my life (I think it just might be.) We arrived at the venue and went straight to hall 10.  I did my homework and knew exactly where I wanted to go.  Our first stop happened to be Constantin puzzles where we met Hendrik.  I took a few photos, said hello, but headed out so Hendrik could do his business.  Our next "stop" was Beverly.  I was hoping to see our friend  Lawrence from Hong Kong, but sadly he wasn't in.  We wandered some more and saw our friend Mark Setteducati. He was at a booth of magic as usual.  

The fair as is expected is overwhelming.  There are more booths to see than there is time for.  The ones in HK lasted 4 or 5 days, this one is 6. I will have sore feet when it's all over I'm sure.  

Anyway, we never made it past hall 10.  We saw professor puzzle,  Eureka, Hanayama of course!  I was surprised by Konstantinos when I was standing explaining something to George.  We sat with him for about 1/2 an hour and had a glass of wine and a nice chat.  We'll go back later in the fair to chat some more.  It ws cut short by a customer.  Much much more important than us.

We ran into Tanya  as we were walking the hall.  It was wonderful to see her again. After a short catch up, we carried on to go see other booths.  

Guido was at Recent Toys, we visited with the folks form Giiker, ran into Marcel Gillen, Pantazis, and Wil.  It was really a fun fair.  

To be honest, we never left hall 10 on the first day.  I had put together a list of vendors we wanted to visit and we did.  Beverly, Hanayama, Professor Puzzle, V-cubes....and quite a few more.  By 1 George's feet were sore and I was tired as well. We had a bit of lunch then headed back to the hotel for a much deserved sleep.  

The next 4 days were much of the same.  I made a few deals, found a few old friends, and enjoyed our trip.  I'm only saddened because Uwe wasn't here to share in my pleasure.  But I still have my lover and I embrace that every day.  

As always, I will let the photos speak for me.