Author: puzzler1909

I share my time between my native Helsinki (Finland) and Dortmund (Germany), where my football team Borussia Dortmund lives. This blog is about my puzzling actvities in these cities.

BVB-Mini-Puzzle, 2019-10-20

puzzler19093 Comments

Before the game yesterday I went into the fan shop at the stadium, and found a puzzle 🙂 It’s an 80 piece mini puzzle, and the image shows the stadium shortly before kick-off. From the way people are holding their scarves high, I’m pretty sure they’re singing You’ll Never Walk Alone, which happens 7 minutes before kick-off. There was no brand beyond Borussia Dortmund, or any indication where it was manufactured, or by whom.

IMG_20191020_002529
BVB-Mini-Puzzle, 80 pieces. Completed on October 20th, 2019.

The game was very exciting, and it ended in a 1-0 win for us. We had two goals disallowed, at least one of which should have stood, and the opponent probably should have had a penalty that wasn’t given, either.

Here’s a bonus photo with the tube the puzzle came in, with a filter from the BVB app (Heimsieg = Home Win).

cached_selfie
BVB-Mini-Puzzle, 80 pieces. Completed on October 20th, 2019.

New Exit-Puzzles

puzzler1909Leave a comment

Apparently, the Ravensburger Exit-puzzle series is doing well, because there are two new puzzles, and of course, I bought them immediately. Wolves and an old cellar.

IMG_20191018_153405

After I had completed my second puzzle in the series, The Witches Kitchen, I noticed that that post kept getting views consistently long after it was published. One reader also contacted me for help with the first puzzle in the series, The Observatory. I thought that most people searching for these puzzles probably wanted more detailed info than I wanted to put in my posts, so after the third and last puzzle from the first batch (The Temple Grounds), I set up a separate spoiler page for the series. If you use Chrome or Firefox you can safely head over to the page because the spoilers are hidden with an HTML-tag called details, but that does NOT work in Microsoft browsers Explorer or Edge. Safari and Opera should be OK, but I’ve not tried them out.

My spoiler page gets more traffic than any other content on my blog, including the home page. Of the posts for individual puzzles, The Witches Kitchen gets the most traffic (about 500 hits). I’ll be doing the new Exit puzzles soon, but I need to finish some of the ones I’m doing now first 🙂

Multipuzzling

puzzler1909Leave a comment

I’m currently working on three different puzzles. In Dortmund, where I now am, I have Epanouissement coloré still unfinished, and in Helsinki, there’s a 500 piece Heye with red hearts and a White Mountain Collage with book covers. If you count the 18 000 piece Paradise Sunset, where I’ve not started on section two yet, I have four puzzles on the go. Progress has been a bit slow lately, mostly due to work.

IMG_20191017_054244

IMG_20191017_054211

Oceania, 2017-09-02

puzzler19094 Comments

This was my second project in Dortmund. I love the image, but it turned out to be more difficult than I had expected. Story of my life 😀 I was especially happy to see Hokusai’s Wave in there – I’ve always wanted to do it, but I think it’s too difficult as an entire puzzle. Worked well in this collage, though.

IMG_20170919_181733
Oceania, Ravensburger, 3000 pieces. Completed on September 2nd, 2017.
IMG_20170710_102335
After juggling pieces of cardboard for years, it was great having a large table to puzzle on. The balloon was easy, but it went downhill from there 🙂
IMG_20170717_165830
The beer is there just for the photo op, otherwise, it belongs on the windowsill.
IMG_20170721_064532
At this point I have all the pieces on the table, originally some were spread out on sheets of cardboard.

Rio de Janeiro, 2018-01-23

puzzler1909Leave a comment

A colourful collage with touristy images of Brazil. I think this was the first 3000-piece puzzle that was in two bags for me. I felt a bit of a cheat, but I  didn’t mix the bags. That way, the table was enough and I didn’t have to use auxiliary pieces of cardboard. It was an enjoyable puzzle, I especially appreciated the colours.

IMG_20180123_214917
Rio de Janeiro, Schmidt, 3000 pieces. Completed on January 23rd, 2018.

Puzzling Proposal

puzzler1909Leave a comment

This is currently on sale on tori.fi in Finland. It’s a wooden puzzle with some text in Finnish. It says “Darling, I would like to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you be my wife?” Kind of adorable 🙂 (I stole the photo from tori.fi)

proposal

1970s Sweet Memories, 2019-10-13

puzzler19092 Comments

I actually gave this puzzle away when I moved in 2013, but then someone brought it into work (I don’t remember who got the puzzle in 2013, but it was obviously a colleague), and now I have it back 🙂 I completed the puzzle for the first time in May 2012, and I posted about it in April this year. A rerun, I’m afraid 🙂 It’s still complete, even after its travels. Also, it was still great fun working on it.

IMG_20191013_020550
1970s Sweet Memories, Gibsons, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 13th, 2019.

IMG_20191012_044052

Art Nouveau, 2019-10-11

puzzler1909Leave a comment

This was a new brand for me, Step Puzzle, and I was not too impressed. The pieces were quite thin, although not so thin that they wouldn’t stay flat. They were, however rather difficult to pick up, and the fit was quite loose. I feel like I should have enjoyed this more than I did. The image is nice, but there are so many posters, I think I would have preferred a smaller number. They are all in the same style, lots of billowing dresses and hair flying everywhere 🙂 There’s no man in any of the posters, just one child and one cat, all the other figures are women.

IMG_20191011_013807
Art Nouveau, Step Puzzle, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 11th, 2019.

This was my favourite. When you see the image from afar it looks like the woman is blindfolded.

IMG_20191011_023221