A long hiatus a short post: IPP Pre-trip

 When I last left off, I showed some overdue photos of a trip our non-puzzling friends made here. Now I give you puzzling friends.  

Tanner came to us in late July. I picked him up from the airport amongst many gaffs on my part and a few laughs from us both.  I had a few errands to run and thought I'd do that before picking up Tanner.  His flight was delayed so I had about 4 extra hours.  I forgot how slowly I shop and ended up getting him almost 45 minutes late. Fine by him, he had a chance to walk around for a while and he was able to have a cigarette before we left for home. 

I had this stupid gas coupon I needed to use and that turned into a real laugh but problem solved in the end.  We had purchased gas when returning our last rental car and the company doesn't return the overage to your credit card, they give you a coupon that needs to be used in the same station.  I had to drive around for what felt like forever to be able to get the gas.  Mission accomplished. The moral of that story: Never use Q8! 

Tanner settled in nicely in an upstairs guest room and we all had a nice dinner and long overdue chat.  George very nicely laid out a bunch of puzzles on the table in the upstairs room for him to go through and I'm sure he did.  

He is a perfect guest. He does his own laundry,  makes his own lunch.  Actually, we have eaten out quite a bit since he's been here.  But that's ok, we'll keep him. 

He was amazing in helping me go through some old puzzles we have acquired that we still hadn't looked at.  He brought over the "good wood" and we started to populate cabinets. He also set up the puzzle box room and started to install puzzles there for me as well.  

Bill an Scarlet came in for a day or two, but I had them take the train as I was just too busy with 'castle issues'.  We had a lovely dinner at Gallo again.  I just love that place.  The food is amazing!  If  you are ever in Panicale, that is THE PLACE to eat.  Great food, fantastic staff.  You just can't go wrong.  

We also had a pretty decent steak and truffle dinner in the castle.

Sadly our time in the castle was short lived. Jerusalem called.  Hopefully they all got to puzzle a bit.  

We took a train to the airport, and flew out the next morning.  That night for dinner we had a fish tasting menu dinner.  That was something new for me.  Sadly, I didn't take photos of each course. 

Bill and Scarlet are quite the foodies and it's so much fun to hear them talk about it.  The next morning we woke early, hopped in a shuttle and flew off.  

First stop Tel Aviv!  We arrived 3 days early.  Why?  I wanted to hit Gala Games and the market before everything disappeared.  We unpacked and the next morning headed out for the market. It was a short walk.  Only about a 1/2 mile.  There we wandered the market, ate some wonderful figs and bargained for some mangos.  We turned around and headed to Gaya Games. There we found George and Henry Strout sitting in the air conditioned building playing with puzzles and chatting with the shop keep.  We had met him last time we were in Israel and he remembered us.  We bought a few puzzles, but there simply wasn't that much new stuff available.  

Everyone went to an escape room, George took a nap and I took a hike to a miniso for a pillow.  Crazy broad!  On my return, I stopped by the lego store and had a few custom lego people made for George and I.  That night we had a meeting of puzzlers and had a nice dinner and drinks with friends. After we ran into a few old friends in the lobby and stayed up late just chatting. IPP has officially begun. 

The next day was a tour of Tel Aviv.  It was interesting, but hot and we had actually done it the year we took our world cruise.  Not to worry.  In the market I managed to purchase the puzzles I hadn't bought previously. There were some interesting buildings we saw and we got a lot of history. For me it is very interesting to listen to the locals tell the stories differently than written in the history books by the 'victors'.  The world is a wonderful place and traveling it really is enlightening.  

I love the graffiti and signs in this city.

Our next day was in Jaffe.  Here ws got a tour of the harbour and saw a pretty amazing castle.  George and I opted to stop and have some lunch rather than finish the tour.  We later met up with the group at Gaya Games, but called it an early day and headed back to the hotel for a nap and some cooler air. 

They told us at the end of the tour that all roads lead to Jaffe. They were wrong.  I fixed the problem though.  

Next post: IPP proper.

Forget Haifa and Tel Aviv, PUZZLE PARTY

 11 April

We opted out of all tours for our 2 day stay in Haifa.  Instead, we messaged friends in Israel and asked for a visit.  At 8:00 we left the ship and headed to the train station.  We went through no less than 3 passport controls before getting out of the port.  We boarded a train and headed to Tel Aviv to meet our friends.  The countryside was beautiful to watch go by.  I was surprised to see that we were near the sea for most of the ride.  I was surprised to see the number of orange groves and banana fields.

At 9:30 or so, we arrived at the University Station in Tel Aviv to be met by our friends Yael and Dor.  I want to say first, they were fantastic hosts!  We loved every minute we spent in their company.  

After giving greetings and hugs all around, we headed off for the old Tel Aviv port area where we had tickets to see the Museum of Illusions.  We were fortunate to have arrived when it opened because 1/2 an hour later the place was overrun by children.  But back to the museum.  When we enter there were plenty of puzzles around to purchase.  (All of which we already have)

Many of the illusions were the bog-standard illusions you find in any science museum anywhere in the world.  We did enjoy a few though.  George’s favorite was the tunnel. I can say it was not mine.  

It was a small but lovely museum.  Well worth the visit.  From here we walked along the old pier in search of some lunch.  We had a typical Israeli breakfast of bread and dips and shackshuka, an egg and tomato sauce dish.  Both were very good.  Of course we also had a local beer. 

Our next stop was a wine shop to pick up a few bottles of local wine and a local liqueur.  George was thrilled to see his first Nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles of wine in one). They also had a Jeroboam (4 bottles in one)  and a Rehoboam (6 bottles in one).  Of course we have all had a magnum (2 bottles in one) so that was no big deal to us.  Dor also bought one bottle of wine for the party we were to have that night.

From here we went to another area of town where we visited the Gaya Puzzle Store.  I had been told by the ladies in the club that I needed to go to this shop.  It didn’t disappoint.  We left with around 10 or so puzzles that were new to us.  The owner of the shop was a nice gent who spent a bit of time with us. 

We next went to our hotel where we dropped off our purchases and picked up a few puzzles we brought along to give away to the other participants in the puzzle party.  We then went to Dor’s home where he very graciously allowed me access to his entire puzzle collection.  

We had some good chats and I really enjoyed being able to go through his puzzles and photographing them.  This is helpful to me when I’m searching for puzzles we don’t have.  I did promise not to hunt a series of puzzles that he is looking for as well. Honor among puzzlers and all of that.

After a while some of the puzzlers began to show up.  I don’t remember all of their names, but I’m thrilled to finally have met Yael Friedman.  I’ve purchased many puzzle rings from her in the past and was eager to meet her.  This night she brought along quite a few puzzles and as expected, I purchased them all.  

She gave one ring to each family to assemble.  Sadly, I've been close 3 times, but still don't have it.  

We began talking about the variety of rings I have at home, and we ended up inviting her to come and stay for an extended period of time to do research.  Needless to say, she took us up on it.  We expect to have a visitor in Early 2023! 

Dor put on quite the party.  He called in a wonderful sushi platter which had more food on it than all of us could eat.  

I finally met Puzzle Wanderer and was reunited with Boaz and David.  I haven’t seen them in more than a couple of years.  I apologize to all who were there that I haven’t mentioned.  It was so overwhelming to me.  There was puzzling until 1 am.  By this time George and I were exhausted.  Yael and Martin returned us to our hotel and we drifted off into puzzling dreams.

The next morning Dor picked us up at around 9:45 or so and we headed off to an open air artists market where we purchased a few more puzzles.  I like matchbox puzzles and we have quite the collection of them now.  If you are ever in Tel Aviv, do look for her products.  Or better yet, go online to www.thinkingames.com and take a look at what she has available. While there we also looked at some puzzles by a guy with an Etsy shop "puzzles.etsy.com" His puzzles were more for children or simple jigsaws so we passed. 

I really love the art in the area.  There were some amazing graffiti images on the buildings. I also found a bit of yarn art. 

We thought all aboard was 5 pm so we went for lunch in a local place.  The meat was delicious and so was the fresh hot bread. 

While sitting there I got a text from a fellow passenger telling me all aboard was at 4.  This caused some alarm for us as we still had an hour long train ride and that would leave us very little room for mistakes.  After lunch, Dor took us to the train station where we boarded with ease.  The ride back was uneventful, but we did almost get off at the wrong stop.  We jumped up and exited the train and headed for the ship.  

We arrived with about an hour to spare and were greatly relieved.  And then we waited.  As it turned out, for whatever unknown reason we didn’t leave port until well after 7 pm.  Had they told us this we would have gladly spent more time with our friends.  Ah well, one more reason to go back next year!

Needless to say, we didn’t see  any of Haifa and our Tel Aviv touring was limited, but it was a wonderful change from the usual tourist things that we do.  We absolutely loved every minute of it and were thrilled our friends all took the time to spend with us.

Until next time, Happy Puzzling and Smooth Seas.