Category: Dortmund

Dortmund, 2019-06-22

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So, while shopping with my friend in Dortmund I came across this puzzle with notable buildings from the city (the stadium is missing, though). It was far too expensive (16.90 EUR) for a 500 piece puzzle, but apparently, I’ll pay anything for a puzzle with a Dortmund theme. Please don’t tell Ravensburger!

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Dortmund, atregio, 500 pieces. Completed on June 22nd, 2019.

The brand, atregio, was new to me, but it turned out to be very good, similar to Ravensburger.

A close-up of the Dortmund U, former headquarters of the Union brewery, now a museum for modern art with a fantastic view of the city from the terrasse.

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Dublin City, 2019-06-19

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So, I managed to finish my Dublin puzzle. Even with the different patterns, it was still pretty difficult, and I ended up relying on the image quite a lot. The only thing that really annoyed me was that pieces wouldn’t stay together, I felt like they’d spring apart as soon as I looked in their direction. Even that became less of an issue as I had larger and more stable “islands” as I progressed.

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Dublin City by Colin Giles, Wardsback, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 10th, 2019.

The pieces were very thin, but I liked the cut, it was a bit whimsical, but not in a way that made the puzzle more difficult. There was never any danger of a piece fitting where it didn’t belong. My favourite piece type was the one with two tabs really close to each other. Somehow the pieces made me think of the three-eyed fish near the nuclear power plant in the Simpsons 🙂

Some of the sharp corners on the pieces were a bit frayed.

Overall a very enjoyable puzzle, even though the quality wasn’t all that good.

It will be old photos for a while now, a friend is visiting me in Dortmund 🙂

Dublin City, In Progress

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I tend not to buy puzzles with grayscale images, but this was a gift from my brother’s family, a souvenir from their trip to Ireland. The box is just big enough to hold the pieces, which I always appreciate (most puzzle boxes are far too big).

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The puzzle is grid cut, but some of the pieces are funny, the one on the left looks like it was really badly cut, and many pieces have “extra” knobs or holes.

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I started with the easiest bit, the text, and it was very enjoyable, although the pieces are a bit thin and don’t hold together that well. I don’t think pieces fitting where they don’t belong is going to be a problem, though.

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Feline Frenzy, 2019-06-16

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I’ve never been a big fan of Gibsons, but every now and then an image is so good that I cave and buy one anyway. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised this time, there was no sign of the old problem of pieces fitting where they don’t belong. It may just be the image, of course, but I don’t think so. Based on this I would even be prepared to try an image with a large area of the same colour. Still not a fan of the waxy finish, but that’s a minor quibble.

I loved this puzzle, it was fun from start to finish.

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Feline Frenzy by Steve Read, Gibsons, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 16th, 2019.
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There’s also a dog in there among the cats.

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Vintage Posters: [The Only Route via Niagara Falls & Suspension Bridge], 2019-06-10

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This was a joy from start to finish. I’ve previously done only one D-Toys puzzle (a Romanian brand) and wasn’t impressed then, but either things have improved or I was too harsh 10 years ago because this was excellent. No problem with pieces fitting where they don’t belong, good grid cut with enough variation and nice print. The puzzle is part of a series called Vintage Posters, but the individual puzzles are not named on the box.

The poster is an advertisement for the Great Western Railway from 1876.

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Vintage Posters: [The Only Route via Niagara Falls & Suspension Bridge], D-Toys, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 10th, 2019.
I did the text first, then started on the train before I finished the edges.

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I’m now on my way to Hamburg, where I will remain until Thursday evening, so there will be no more puzzling until the weekend. Unfortunately, the trip is work, not pleasure. I have enough old puzzle photos, so there will be a new post every day.

Collage – Egypt, 2019-05-27 & Ice Hockey

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Two weeks ago I mentioned on the blog that the ice hockey world championship was about to start. Well, against all odds, Finland won! None of the big Finnish NHL stars wanted in, and 18 of 25 players were first-timers. Still, they managed to beat Sweden (21 NHL players), Russia (title favourites) and finally Canada in the final. In the end, hard work and team play beat star-studded opponents. Amazing!

Also, I managed to finish my Egyptian collage. The section below on the right, Tutankhamun in the middle and the two sections above and below him turned out to be pretty easy. For the remaining five I could sort the pieces into two piles, one for the two images with grey stone and one for the three remaining images with yellowish stone. It wasn’t all that easy, but still enjoyable from start to finish!

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Collage – Egypt, Grafika, 2000 pieces. Completed on May 27th, 2019.

Collage – Egypt, In Progress

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I started on a 2000-piece Egyptian collage by Grafika.

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A scene from the underworld, where Anubis has placed a feather on one side of the scales and the heart of the deceased on the other. The feather needs to be heavier than the heart…
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The death mask of Tutankhamun.

The pieces for these two sections were pretty easy to pull, but it’s going to get a lot harder from now on.