November has ended

I had fully planned to post about visitors, new puzzles, and our adventures, but time caught up with me again.  This sounds like a simple excuse, but trust me.  It's real.

First we had to take a trip up to Grardara near San Marino to arrange for a puzzle exhibition.  Sadly, George caught the whooping cough and we had to hand our hotel reservations over to a very happy Antonio and Elena.  They had a nice weekend while we spent it in bed. All is good though.  I've mostly gotten over it and George lucked out and his only lasted a month. 

Bruce and Sybil Whitehill arrived for a visit. They are hosting the AGPI convention in The World Puzzle Center this October and of course they had to come for a visit to check out our facilities.  We had a few wanders around the town, a dinner or two.  

I have put together a nice puzzling scavenger hunt around the town and we enjoyed walking through it together.  I also brought them on a tour of Castiglione del Lago.  Sadly the puzzle shop was closed this time.  

Between these guests and our next set, we had a ring at the doorbell one afternoon.  I appears that word is spreading about our little venture. This time it was an Italian family from over near the coast that had seen us on TV.  They came in and asked for a tour.  It was gladly given. There have been three of these impromptu visits this month alone.  

Once they left town, I got to work on adding a few more pieces to our Lego Christmas Display but didn't get too far before George's brothers arrived for a visit.  We loved having them and their wives and of course had to have a dinner at Gallo and Mosolino both.  Linda has cousins that live an hour away so they came over for a dinner and spent the night with us as well.  It was a real full house.  A few games of Eurorails were played, a lot of good meals were cooked, and much laughter was heard in the castle.  These three together is so much fun.  

We enjoyed a day trip to Orvieto.  I sat with Brother Gene and discussed life in general while observing the people walking by while George took the rest of his family to see the Orvieto Underground. After a bite to eat I took the ladies for a wander around town to do a bit of shopping.  

The day they left, we did as well.  We are now sitting at Oskars' place picking up a few more puzzles that have been donated to the WPC.  I suppose we could have had them shipped down to us, but it is so much more fun to travel and see friends. This also allows George and I much needed time with just the two of us.  We love having guests, but even when we don't have company, we have staff and workmen and random visitors from off the street.  There is no time alone. 

José and I spent a few hours walking around the Mall of the Netherlands.  I wanted to get a few Lego Christmas characters and to get my silly passport stamped.  Mission accomplished.  

While there, we wandered to a toy store or two and managed to find a few more puzzles I didn't have! We wandered back to the house with our packages and to spend a few more hours talking.

George and Oskar worked on some puzzle designs.  And as normal lately when George offered up the most recent puzzle he's been working on, Oskar handed him a similar version that he had already completed.

Our stay there was short.  We awoke the next morning and headed out to pick up the Van der Poel collection.  It was gifted to the museum after William's passing on the condition that it remain available for puzzlers as is our norm.  The collection was partially packed up when we arrived which was a big help.  George and I spent just short of 3 hours packing and loading the van.  We are very grateful for the collection and wish to thank both Hans and Peter for their generous gift.  

The van is now riding heavy.  We managed to return to Italy on 3 December as we had guests arriving on the 5th.  What a rushed trip.  This is turning into our M.O. 

On to Nuremberg

 The next morning saw us at Jan Zoon's home.  We were given a wonderful gift to add to the World Puzzle Center. He gave us his Notre Dame puzzle!  What wonderful generosity.  

It is a big puzzle, but thankfully, he put it into boxes and we managed to fit it into the van.  We should have thought better about how to put it in there, because we had boxes shifting from one side to the other while I drove.  (When we got to Nuremberg we repacked the car and tied down the boxes.)

They showed us the doll house they have been working on and another beautiful puzzle that he created.  We stayed for a bit, had a cup of tea and chatted about puzzles and other things before taking our leave.

From here we went to see our friends Oskar and José again.  This is a real treat for George to see them whenever we are in the area. Both of them have the same silly sense of humor.  It makes for a lot of laughs.  Around 1/2 hour after we arrived Peter and Fredi came over and we all sat and talked for a while.  Later that evening we went for Greek food which was great as always.  

Sadly we had to leave the next morning to get to Northern Germany where we met with Bruce Whitehall.  We have been in correspondence about some puzzle related things, and thought since we are here we should stop by and say hello.  We arrived around 3, had a wonderful apple cake with cream and a cup of tea.  And then we headed out to town.  We had dinner in a French place, I of corse ordered currywurst.  Over diner we had a very nice chat.

From here we went to the theatre where we saw a MET live presentation of Carmen.  Now I really enjoyed the music, but not the story.  I mean, I know the story, but this time it was changed into something more modern.  Arms factory, sports cars, and I'm not giving anything away when I tell you that Carmen gets killed in the end. But by a baseball bat?  I'll stick with the classics thank you.  

But the wine they served was good, we were introduced to the theatre because we came all the way from Italy to their little place to view the opera, and there was chocolate on the way out the door. I've never seen anything like it.  A very fun evening.  

Bruce showed us his home and a number of puzzles he had for sale, but sadly we declined to purchase as we have already everything he was selling. 

The next day we awoke and once again said our goodbyes shortly after breakfast.  We were headed to Bernhard Schweitzers home before finally arriving in Nuremberg. Along the way, George managed to solve a puzzle that he found. 

We've known Bernhard for years and had a really nice time looking at his collection and Kirsten's art works.  They have a lovely home filled with many interesting things.  Not just puzzles.  Kirsten made a very delicious dinner for us and an even more amazing set of cakes!  She's a very good cook.  

We truly enjoyed our short visit.  I even got to see a book or two that I now will have to hunt down.  

This is always one of the joys of meeting people. Finding things we don't have and having to find them later.  In Bernard's collection, I am sure there are many.  I just need to unbox before committing to any new purchases of old puzzles.  Kirsten showed us some of her beautiful paintings.  Sadly, the van is full. 

Bernhard took us to see his workshop.  We discovered that George has the same saw.  The sander I new need to look for.  

The next morning we left for Nuremberg.  Our reason for being here.  I was warned that there was lots of construction and That was an understatement.  Not a major problem, but man did I have a headache when we got to the hotel.  First stop: a pharmacy for some aspirin.  Then back to the room to relax before the next days fun begins. 

Again, I am saddened by the lack of snow.  I would have expected to have at least a foot of ground covering, but the best we found was some black leftover plow deposit that I crunched over.  I'm sure that it is gone today.  Such a sad state of affairs.