The British are coming! The British are coming!

Back in April Nigel, Steve, and I started the solve of the Mega Mansion.  I promised I wouldn't touch it again until they came back.  At IPP we were all chatting one night and decided they would come over in October to finish it off.  This of course put a silly song in my head...My favorite line of which is "And the shot heard 'round the world was the start of the Revolution."  followed closely by "Even though we lost, it was quite a thrill,The rebel Colonel Prescott proved he was wise; Outnumbered and low on ammunition As the British stormed his position He said, "Hold your fire till you see the whites of their eyes!"  (I must have watched too much saturday morning tv as a kid.  No wonder we don't own one now.)  Well, this weekend was the start of a new type of revolution.  

George and I met Steve at the airport and we headed off to Assisi for the day.  We had a bit of sightseeing and a great pizza for lunch.  

Once we finished, we headed over to Leroy Merlin to pick up some odds and ends and a outdoor furniture set for the tower.  Sadly, it didn't fit in the car so, after we headed back to the airport so Steve could pick up his car we returned and stuck it in the back.  

He and George headed home while I went on and did some more shopping.  We had guests coming and I didn't want to run out of food.  

We spent a good few days opening puzzles and laughing.  Steve got a tour of the updated Puzzle Palace,

and on Friday night he went to the airport to pick up the guys from the UK.  He had 4 of them in the car for the drive back.  I'm sure it was a laugh a minute on the return home.  In the mean time Jan Zoon and his wife arrived for the weekend.  We had a nice lasagna, and I made another for the guys to have when they got back from the airport.  

I dutifully took them to the Palace to pick their rooms, and I think Allard was the only sane one.  He chose the half empty Lego room.  I'm sure he was the only one to get any sleep over the weekend.  Ali was in the Rubik's room and Peter chose  the IPP room. Louis was in the Apartment for the weekend and Steve was in the 2nd floor wood room.  The upper floor was filled with Jan and Hans.  

After feeding the lads, I left them to it and went to bed.  The next morning We had a bit of puzzling fun.  Mostly trying to reassemble a bit of The Notre Dame puzzle that had come undone.  Jan's wife and I headed off for Perugia to purchase a cd player so we could read the disk they had given us of the puzzle.  When we returned with it, George put it in the machine and was able to read some of it, but not all.  Steve couldn't read any of it and so he sent it off to his machine in the UK to read.  Sounds like Chinese whispers doesn't it?  Eventually they got it together and upstairs they went to assemble the puzzle.  

Around 2 Hans Van der Pol and his wife arrived and we all took a tour of the WPC.  Sadly, the tour takes around 3 to 4 hours and I didn't want to do it twice in one weekend.  Sorry for the wait guys.  While George finished the tour, I put lunch on the table.  As usual, it was just meats and cheeses.  A simple lunch.  

I decided to give poor George a break. Hence the paper plates.  Lucky man he is.

Once that was finished, the guys went upstairs and assembled the Notre Dame puzzle! It is perfect in that room.  

We opted for Gallo for dinner Saturday night and fun was had by all.  Sadly, Jan and his wife left early as they weren't feeling well.  

On Sunday, the mega mansion was finished and reassembled!  That is one heck of a puzzle.  Thank you Tracy!

The highlight of the weekend was watching Peter run up and down the stairs every 5 minutes to turn the light back on.  

He was enamored by the hall of tiny treasures and spent a great deal of time there.  The rest of the guys got to play with whatever they wished.  At times we sat around talking and at other times we just puzzled.  

Sunday lunch we ordered in torte de testa from Stephano's bar because I was just too lazy to cook them myself.  

There were plenty left over, and the guys took them for a dinner before their flight back home.  Steve took Allard, Ali, and Peter to the airport while the Zoon's and the Miller's headed to the opera.  It was wonderful as always.  When we returned, we had a light dinner of leftovers and spent more time chatting and puzzling.

Louis and Steve remained until Tuesday.  At some point, they finished unboxing the IPP room.  Lord knows what I was doing?  Not cooking.  I overheard them say I was feeding them too much.  Ok!  You didn't grow up with my grandmother.  Mangiare!  Mangiare! I felt as though I didn't feed you enough. But point taken. 

Jan and his lovely lady left Monday around noon.  I packed them a nice lunch for a picnic along the way.  It was lovely to have them down to help put the puzzle together.  It was a weekend we will never forget.  That evening I made a Berrocal dinner for the guys.  Simple food, great service.  

Tuesday morning we found a geocache in Panicale!  Who knew?  

Louis solved the puzzle door!

And after that, just more puzzling and more chat until Steve and Louis left for the airport on Tuesday afternoon.  It was a real treat to have them all here.  We look forward to the next visit.  

One last thing that really stuck in my mind.  Allard said something along the lines of "he was prepaired to be impressed, but his mind was blown".  And just think.  only 1/3 of the work is done.  We still have the great wall to build, 3 more rooms to shelve, and a lot of puzzles to unbox.  Just wait until next time sir!

Another trip to the UK

Some of our puzzle trips are spur of the moment decisions.  This last month Peter Hajek was the cause of one of those. A few months back, I had bid on yet another Berrocal and won.  I thought to ask Steve to pick it up for us, but he reminded me that Peter lived right next door.  I very quickly emailed Peter requesting that he pick up my new piece and paid for the auction.  In the mean time, I had purchased another box of puzzles from Happy Puzzle Company and had them delivered to Steve.  Now Steve then went to Peter's for a visit and delivered that box there.  In the mean time, Peter very generously donated a collection of parlor games and puzzles to the WPC so we woke up one morning and decided to go pick them up.  

Now that sounds like we just hopped in the car and left.  In reality, I emailed all parties involved, booked hotel rooms and the Chunnel and spent a day planning the trip because of meetings and work going on in the WPC.  So a week later we finally hit the road.  Our trip this time was dull with not many extra sites to see because I wanted to get there and back because of the work going on here.  We always stop in Como for the night, then again somewhere in France before taking the Chunnel the next morning.  I messed up this time and we ended up in France for 3 days!  UGH!!

I also discovered F1 hotels. The last time we stayed at one, we thought it was ok so I booked again without realizing what I was doing.  I'm posting it here for my future reference.  NOTE TO SELF: NEVER AGAIN!!!  Yes, the hotel was cheap and the rooms were adequate, but after spending 3 consecutive nights in one, I would only recommend it to a college student, and grudgingly at that.  George looked up the average size of a prison cell in the US and they are bigger than these rooms.

The first night in France we stopped in Nancy Sud.  Talk about a nasty area.  The only positive was a big shopping mall across the road.  We had a simple dinner in the room, then went out to the lobby to play a game of Eurorails that we always carry with us. We had a bratty kid decide he wanted to smoke right at the door, with his foot in it so he didn't need to open it with the code.  Talk about lazy.  Anyway, we asked him to please close the door.  I thought by his behavior we had asked him to give us all of his money and clothes too.  He was incredibly rude to us.  But, another gentleman traveling with him managed to get him to shut the door.  

We had planned to have a lie in, but the next morning we got up and headed out.  I didn't want to stay there anymore.  We reached Calais and this is where I realized I made a mistake.  We were checked in to another of these F1 hotels, this time it was about 1/2 mile from the Chunnel station.  Not bad.  The property was the same, but nicer people around.  When I went to check in for the morning ride, I discovered that it was a day later.  Oh joy!  I booked the F1 again and went for a drive over to the Cité Europa to look for puzzles.  Bust.  Oh well.  Back to George for another game. 

And another day in the same hotel....

Finally, we woke up, I checked in and discovered we could leave a bit earlier so off to the UK we went.  We met with Peter around noon, had a good long talk, lunch, more talking, more puzzling.  You get the idea.  Out of respect for Peter's wishes, I post no photos.  

We left him around 4 and drove to the hotel we chose for the night.  This time we stayed at the Rising Sun Inn in Longfield.  I highly recommend it.  We will stay there again. It was such a quiet little place with an amazingly comfortable bed!

We brought in the game thinking we would play, but both of us were so exhausted, we went to bed without eating.  The fish and chips lunch was more than enough to satisfy us.  And speaking of, what is it with fish and chips?  Our friends in the UK love them.  I enjoy it, but it really hates me. Every time I eat it, I'm sick.  this time was no exception.  Around an hour after I went to bed, I was up tossing lunch.  It just didn't agree with me.  But look at this beautiful room!  

Again we had no lie in.  I wanted to get home.  I had gotten a message bout a rogue electrician who decided to pull wires out of walls willie nillie and was eager to return to sort out the problem.  We woke around 8 and I checked in to the Chunnel only to learn that we could get on the train 3 hours earlier without having to pay more.  Needless to say, we got up and left right away.  The ride across was uneventful and we began our trip home.  But....Once again we had to stay at a pre-booked F1 hotel.  I can see you all slapping your forehead.  Yes, I was stupid!  NEVER AGAIN.

We drove as far as Reims spent yet another night with this hotel chain and got up the next morning as soon as possible for a visit to Constantin Puzzles.  Again, out of respect for Constantin I won't post photos.  We had a tour of his workshop, George got to look at the laser cutters he uses and thankfully has decided he doesn't want to get one.  Those are expensive machines!  We were so honored, they made a lunch for us and allowed me to rummage through the storage area. Of course, I had ordered a bunch of puzzles in advance and picked those up.  While rummaging, I managed to find quite a few more that we didn't have.  

After leaving, we decided to stop in Luzern and stayed at an Ibis hotel.  I had booked us an F1, but this time because I had decided to pay a bit more to be able to cancel in case we were unable to make this short detour.  I cancelled.  I was able to find an Ibis and that is where we spent the night.  Much more comfortable bed, much more comfortable room, and only a 7 hour drive home.  I let George have his lie in and we left around 9:30 or so.  

You know that feeling you get when you are a long holiday and finally return to your home region.  When I crossed the border into Italy, I breathed a sigh of relief and began to enjoy the beauty of the country we have chosen to call home.  We had a very leisurely drive through Italy and returned to the castle around 4.  

I immediately went over and dealt with the rogue electrician.  Turns out, there was confusion as to who actually owns the building.  (Note: it is George and I).  Once that was established, I got the smokers out-we have clothes stored there and the smell....And got everyone back to doing as I wanted it done.  Problem solved.  

As we had guests arriving in a week, George and I decided to do a little more unpacking.  This time, it was the Mega Mansion.  Finally!  It has found a home under the stairs in the tower hall.  I think it is in good company now.  

The End

....

O'Beirne's cube

Today's puzzle was exchanged by Peter Hajek. It is really a bunch of puzzles in one. When he explained it during the exchange, I've got to admit that I really wasn't sure what he was on about. (not that that means much, at the end of an exchange day I don't even really know my name. It's truly an overwhelming experience that I'll never get tired of.) I did gather that it was a packing puzzle and a fitting puzzle and that's about as much as I managed to take in.

It is first off a puzzle of how to build a box. Now that may seem easy to some but remember this is Rox we are talking about. There are twelve bits that form two boxes. Ok putting together two boxes I can do. Then I noticed that the boxes fit one inside the other! Ha! There's more to this than meets the eye. And I have to say I'm glad. I was worried about how I was going to manage to fit the blocks inside the frame if there was a big hole under the frame. (yes, that thought did cross my mind).

Now here comes the cool part. The REAL puzzle. How does one go about making the bits fit into the frame? There are 6 bits that need to fit into 6 frames. Each bit and each frame is a different size and orientation. So here we have 6 puzzles. But wait! There is more than that! It seems that we get two more puzzles tacked on top of the 7 (or 8 depending on how you count) that we already have. There are two different ways to pack the 6 bits into the box that has been provided. So now we have 9-10 puzzles in one. Value for money or what?

It's fun too. I've managed to sort out how to make the boxes-and let me tell you, that was an all teeth moment. I've also sussed out two of the six frame puzzles. I've got four more to go and for me, this isn't one of those puzzles that I will do once and remember. I'm sure there is some mathematical equation I could do to work out the solution but I much prefer the puzzle talking to me so trial and error it is.