Too long gone and a new adventure

I didn't blog about IPP this year. Honestly, as host I missed IPP.  I was hoping that I could make sure everyone had a good time, and from the feedback, I'm pretty sure all did except me.  Just a note to self: DO NOT HOST IPP again. 

I loved watching all of our friends enjoy themselves, but to be honest, I don't remember much of anything.  I was too busy rinning around.  So rather than post about a party I don't remember, I will instead post about the time after.  We skip a few years time because of hosting.  

George and I hosted a few friends after IPP and managed to get a lot more work done in the castle.  The plates are up, the people puzzle is up, the wolf and the rabbit is up.....One step at a time.  We took a week off to head to Corbo Sasso again this year.  We love glamping there.  The owners are such wonderful people and the camp is just a week away to relax. It was overdue.  

Now we are on our way to Vienna where our friend Alex is hosting his first puzzle party.  To get there, we are Tesla camping.  And this will be the crux of our next months worth of blog posts.  After this party, we are headed to Finland, then back to the Netherlands for Dutch Cube Day before heading back home again.  

Tonight is our first night sleeping in this Tesla.  We have stopped at a camp site an hour or so North of Venice.  We pulled in rather late tonight.  I had to make a stop to get some wine (how did I forget that!) before coming here.  

I unpacked the table and chairs while George worked on his computer for a bit.  I took out the air fryer and heated up dinner and we enjoyed it along with a good bottle of wine. I discovered that the silicon bowls I purchased from Amazon are no good in the air fryer as it melted.  Lesson learned.  

We spent a good bit of cash getting the car ready. I bought the Fruble light camping kit, a Snuuzu matress, and then added m old army ponchos, a pair of puppies, an electric blanket and a Bluetti power station.  I also took an induction stove from the apartment, the mini air fryer, our old picnic kit, a new bug zapper, and a few usbc chargeable lights to give us a bit of light.  I also purchased an extendable screen wand and a usbc chargeable bug zapper.  All in, I spent around 4000 to kit out the car.  But, with this upcoming trip, I ended up saving money because we are not spending all the nights in the hotels.  In the end, it will pay for itself in about 3 weeks.

The car used around 10% of the battery during our overnight stay.  The overnight outside temperature was 10 degrees so this isn't bad at all.  We were a nice toasty 22 degrees inside.  

My first nights sleep was fitful. Mostly because as soon as I fell asleep George decided to steal my pillow and that woke me up again.  Add to that getting used to the noises of the car and that made me a bit nervous.  I'll learn to live with that too.  

Oh, and the other thing....George had to wee at least 5 times.  Good thing I bought the pots for him. 

We drove on to Vienna for the first APP.  We checked in to the Austria Trend Schloss Wilhelminenberg.  It is an old castle that has been turned into a hotel.  It was originally built in 1781 and converted into a hotel in 1988.  So not as old as ours but what it lacks in age, it makes up for in view.

After checking in, we headed over to Alex's house in the country side for a nice chat, a few glasses of wine and a lovely dinner.  Sadly, 9 am was the start of the puzzle party so the night ended early for us.  Maybe around 10.  George gets tired easily these days and I didn't want to wear him out.  On the way home I had a giggle fit.  Enough said.  We slept well and the view at night from this room is spectacular.

Upon waking, I realized I only had sweat pants in the bag so after dropping George at the puzzle party, I headed to a local mall to get some jeans and a bit of good bread.  It is difficult for me to find the kind George likes in Italy. The jeans was quick and easy. The bread though was a disaster. I spent over an hour in the checkout queue because of some coupon discount sticker disaster that was going on. I texted George about my frustrations and to explain why I was taking so long....When my turn came, the final bill was to be paid, and the girl behind the counter remembered the discounts and wanted to give me mine.  I tossed my receipt at her and told her to keep it herself.  Later I found out this sale period ended 3 days ago but people were still using the stickers and this was causing much grief.

I got to the party a bit late, but did manage to solve a 2D packing puzzle that was given out to all participants.  I watched quite a few people solving puzzles and had some nice little chats.  For me, once I've solved one, I'm done.  I'm happy. A miracle has happened and why tempt fate?  

I saw Steve and Goerg were working on the host gift that I brought along for people to play with so I went over to watch.  No, I hadn't solved it yet.  It was a lovely puzzle, simple enough for me, tricky enough to stump others.  Stefan gave us the first hit. Without giving it away, it was basically, READ.  From there the solve was super fun.  I discovered one bit, played around with a bit of other things, but honestly wouldn't have solved it without the help of others.  And the surprise inside!  I loved it as much as I loved the look of the puzzle.  Stefan produced an amazing gift for us.  Now I just need to find a place to put it.  

We all had a nice lunch at a local place.  I had the dumpling soup.  Great broth, but the dumpling just didn't work for me.  George had a hamburger with fries and truffle sauce-I devoured those and had to order  another.  Toby entertained us with his story of how he met his German, and I learned quite a lot of history about the city from the local puzzlers.  Sorry, I didn't get any names as I came in late thanks to the sticker-gate.  

We returned to do some more puzzling and Alex showed us his prototypes for the ice-cream sandwich.  I liked that he prototyped pieces in various ways to make sure it worked. He won an award at IPP for this puzzle, and given that he designed it in 2 weeks time is incredible!  Hat's off!

A few 3D puzzles ended up with broken bits, but I learned about laying down filament and how infill is so very important on fragile pieces.  

Everyone packed up and left around 6. We headed to a pub for a beer and a bit to eat with Steve and Ali before heading back to the hotel for the night.  It's a long drive back to Panicale, and I hadn't gotten much sleep over the past 2 days so I turned in at 9.  That meant at 4 I was up and awake again while George snoozed on.  Ah well, time to finish this post.  

Tonight we camp again.  Hopefully I can find us a spot.  

Otis' thoughts on IPP XLIII

Sadly, I'm still busy finishing up IPP.  So...Otis has given me his permission to post his thoughts here.  Enjoy!  I know I did.  And thank you Otis!

The World Puzzle Center is located in a small town called Panicale in central Italy. It is a really small town with only about 35 year round residents. Believe it or not, the building is actually a 15th-century castle with over 500 years of history! To make things easier, I'll just call it WPC from now on.

On the day we visited, because there were tons of IPP members coming over, the organizers set up a Puzzle Pop-up Store right at the castle entrance. 

The Jar Room: Right after we walk in, we see the entrance hall, which is also called "The Great Wall of China". There are loads of different bottles and cups on display, which belong to the Puzzle Vessels category. You can find cool stuff like Pythagorean cups ("fair cups") and bottom-filling teapots! On the side, they also keep some vintage puzzle collections, like wooden dexterity puzzle boards and different rolling-bean puzzles.

The Lock Room: Just like the name says, this room is all about locks! Three out of the four walls are covered from floor to ceiling with tons of different puzzle locks. From what I saw, the locks here aren't the super pricey ones (because I saw the really expensive ones in other rooms later). But guess what? Here's the funniest part: this room was actually converted from a toilet, and the toilet is STILL working!

The Metal Room: This room displays all kinds of metal puzzles. There are common commercial ones, rare editions, and of course, super valuable collectibles! For example, the Roger D aluminum puzzle series in the bottom-left photo is a legendary set.

The Wood Room: A room full of wooden puzzles, mostly Interlocking puzzles. Some cool examples are Mjölnir made by Stephan Baumegger, and a camera-shaped Sequential Discovery puzzle made by Pelikan. And of course, you can't miss the famous wooden puzzles from Czech Vinco!

The Twistypuzzles Room: This was definitely one of the most mind-blowing rooms of the whole trip! All four walls are literally covered in Rubik's cubes—you are completely surrounded!  (NB: I think this was his favorite room. But he didn't photograph the bathroom.)

I picked some of the rarer and cooler ones to take photos of, like the Gundam Head series, the Massage Ball (which was never mass-produced), and some awesome masterpieces by Smaz.

The Plastic Room: This room is for all the plastic puzzles that aren't Rubik's cubes. The amount of stuff here is crazy too! There are all kinds of Instant Insanity puzzles, 3D puzzles, rolling ball mazes, and sliding block puzzles.

The Single Player Puzzle Room: Generally speaking, children under age of 18 are not allowed to enter the WPC unless they are invited. The Italians, however, always bring their children along. This is a cozy little lounge where guests can take a short break and play various single-player games. Next to it is a Hanayama room, which houses a whole collection of various cast puzzles. 

The Lego Room: Who doesn't like Lego? This room consists of many different toys made of Lego and nanoblocks all built by Rox.  Some of the children in town are allowed to enter the lego room and build, but only in this room. 

The Crystal Room: This room is all about the Crystal Puzzle. There’re every crystal puzzle made by Hanayama, Jeruel, Beverly and a few other chinese companies. All are made of transparent plastic blocks that you put together to make 3D cartoon characters. From what I know there’s only 2 missing from Russia, and also a few prototypes. Look at how many cabinets they need to display everything! To make the transparent puzzles look extra shiny and cool, they made the lighting in this room a bit dimmer. The vibe was awesome! (NB: this room is lit with black lights 24/7 as many of the puzzles glow!)

The IPP Room: Since our hosts, Rox and George, are both IPP members, they obviously collect tons of IPP puzzles! This room shows off the exchange puzzles from past IPP events over the years. They even have a souvenir puzzle from the very 1st IPP! So historic!

The Oskar Room: Oskar van Deventer is like a superstar in the puzzle design world, so of course he deserves his own dedicated room! This room has all kinds of puzzles from him—mass-produced ones, his own 3D-printed creations, and even some test prototypes. Honestly, I only realized I forgot to take a wide shot of the whole room when I started writing this... I guess I took way too many photos that day and my brain just froze!

While exploring different parts of the castle, we kept finding super rare and amazing puzzles hidden in different corners!

• For example, the Craig Thibodeau Golf Chest (top-left photo) is a custom puzzle piece of furniture made just for Rox. This big wooden chest has lots of drawers that open with different secret mechanical triggers. So fun!

• The little house in the top-right photo is called the Puzzle Palace. It's a super detailed Sequential Discovery puzzle made to look exactly like Rox and George's old house! Apparently, when they first had the idea for the World Puzzle Center, they turned their home into the original "Puzzle Palace". Later on, they moved to Italy, but that's a story for another time!

• The middle-right photo is the Apothecary Chest. It's an ultra-detailed puzzle made by several puzzle designers working together, and there are only 15 sets in the whole world!

• The metal sculptures in the bottom-right photo are the famous Berrocal puzzle series, which puzzle collectors go crazy over.

  Finally, the middle photo is a jigsaw-style puzzle of Notre-Dame de Paris made by Jan Zoon. It is made of 7,438 individual pieces! It actually won an award back then, so it's one of the top treasures in WPC. 

  
  

  

  WPC isn't just about puzzle displays; they even have a Library! It's filled with books about puzzles and math. We were happy to spot a Chinese book called Qu Wan (趣玩), written by our friends Zhang Wei and Peter!

  
  

  

  The castle itself has so many cool little details. Almost every corridor lamp has a different design—some look medieval, some look like disentanglement puzzles, and some are geometric math models! Walking through the courtyard, you might see a mini gym; around the corner, you might find artwork made from a twisted rug; walking downstairs, you might end up in a "dragon's lair". In one of the living rooms, we even saw a castle-shaped wooden craft that Yuan gave to George years ago.

  
  

  

  Since George Miller is a professional puzzle prototyper, he obviously has his own workshop. We saw a bunch of 3D printers (mostly Bambu Lab), paper cutting and bookbinding tools, xTool laser engravers and cutters and more. He literally has every tool you could ever imagine!

  
  

  

  Even though WPC is huge, there were SO many people visiting that day—we had almost 300 people! Plus, there were so many fun things to play with in every room, so the whole tour took quite a while. Besides chatting and taking tons of photos, some people joined to assemble a 3D interlocking puzzle designed by George Hart, while others tried to solve the Puzzle Palace.

  
  

  

  We stayed there for 8 whole hours, and even then, we only barely managed to walk through every room once! After visiting, I honestly think the name "World Puzzle Center" is not an exaggeration at all—it 100% deserves the title! I really don't think there is anywhere else on Earth with such a massive and amazing puzzle collection, let alone a place that lets people actually touch and play with them! This trip to the WPC  is definitely the most unforgettable memory of our whole Italy trip!

  
  

  (NB: ChatGPT Translation: Dear Rox & Xixi,

  It has been a wonderful experience to see your city transformed into such an amazing puzzle event. From the very first moment we arrived and saw your collection of more than 40 puzzle exhibits, we could already feel the happiness and passion that puzzles have brought into your lives.

  Although our time here was short—only about 31 hours and 8 hours of sleep—it was enough to make us truly appreciate your care and dedication. We enjoyed listening to the stories behind each of the 40+ puzzles and learning about the city's puzzle culture.

  Thank you for your thoughtful preparations for this IPP and for arranging such a warm and memorable gathering.

  We wish your city continued prosperity and hope it becomes a place of honor for the puzzle community.

  From: Your friends

  (Drawing of Italy)

  WORLD PUZZLE CENTER

  SPECTACULAR!
  MAGNIFICENT! ❤️)

  
  

  Thank you Otis for such a wonderful writeup.