DCD

For my 6th year in a row, I attended DCD again.  I'm not sure if the main draw is the puzzles, or the people.

After a rocky start leaving Boca we finally made it to Delft on Friday afternoon.  We were unable to meet with Guido of Recent Toys because of one delay after another.  We missed the train in Boca, had to take an Uber to the airport only to have that flight delayed.  When we arrived in Frankfurt there was some commotion at the customs inspection so we waited over 1/2 an hour to get our bags on the x-ray machine feeder.  As always my bag was singled out (don't have jerky in your bag) and this time George's was too (the scissors that got through Miami didn't pass the muster in Germany.) We were sure we missed our connecting flight only to discover that this plane was delayed by an hour.  When it finally arrived, because of some 'weather' in Amsterdam, we had to sit on the tarmac or another 45 minutes before we were able to take off.  When we finally got our luggage, we had 3 large suitcases

to haul around and simply got on the train to Delft.  We were both dead.

We were staying with Peter Knoppers yet again.  He and Friede are wonderful hosts.  We truly enjoy our time with them. On Saturday we decided to take two of the suitcases to Oskar's as we would be spending a week with them bicycling in the south of the Netherlands.  George and I brought along a little surprise for Oskar. His very own 3D printer.  George had great guilt over not using the small one  I bought him for our South American cruise, and we had been after Oskar for a while to get a 3D printer.  You can only imagine the look of surprise on his face when George took it out and gave it to him.  You can only imagine the look of dismay on my face when I realized what he had done and I didn't have my camera out.

They put it together but didn't play right away.  There was puzzling to be done.  Throughout the visit with Oskar poor Andreas measured for the twisty puzzle museum.  He even got the exact weight and length of this SPH.  We had the opportunity to see Steve and Ali's latest adventure into brass puzzling and were thrilled.  George loved it and I asked to be added to the puzzle of the month club.  I think I now have a standing order for whatever they decide to make.  After a few hours Dave Pitcher showed up with his beautiful twisty puzzles, but it was sadly time for us to return to Peter's for dinner out.  Not to worry, we would be enjoying a whole lot more puzzling in the morning.

At DCD proper, we met with old friends yet again.  I always enjoy talking with Geert Hellings and Tony Fisher among others.  This is really why we attend DCD.  It's honestly not the puzzles, although we did manage to purchase 57 this year.  The amount of 'necessary' puzzles gets smaller each year.  Could it be that we are satisfied with what we have? Have we reached saturation point?

This year saw more people and more tables than in the past.  Yes, I know the room looks empty.  This was taken just after lunch was served.  Food always seems to clear the room.  It was very nice to even see Nick Baxter there!  What a surprise that was.  After the day was over, we left rather abruptly.  I want to apologize to all who  I didn't say good-bye to.  I was taken by surprise when Oskar said it was time to leave.  Until 2021!  See you then.