This puzzle is from a local charity shop in Dortmund, and unlike many puzzles from there, it has all the pieces, although on a few dozen pieces the image layer has separated on a tab, even though the puzzle is only a couple of years old. This was easier than many Van Haasteren images, especially because the tents make it a bit less busy than many other images. Van Haasteren himself can be seen canoeing here, and he is of course followed by the shark fin that is always present in his puzzles.
Camping in the Forest by Jan van Haasteren, Jumbo, 1000 pieces. Completed on October 3, 2023.
Here’s a picture of the recurring van Haasteren characters that someone posted in a puzzling FB group:
This was a Destiny Wasgij, where you see a scene from the past and puzzle a contemporary image. I have to say, the puzzle image didn’t have much to do with the box image, and I was almost finished when I worked out the idea of the puzzle image. If you want to see the finished image, you can click here.
I closed out 2022 with two WASGIJ? puzzles. First up, Strictly can’t dance:
This was probably the first WASGIJ puzzle where I didn’t really know where it was going until close to the end. Usually they’re pretty easy to work out, for example, you might have an image of some horrified poodles, and when you spread out the pieces there’s lots of grey fur and teeth, and then you know it’s wolves, and the rest is just filling in the details. (As far as I know, there is no puzzle with poodles and wolves, that was just an example). Anyway, this was great fun, even though there was one piece missing. You can have a peek at the finished puzzle here.
The second WASGIJ was Late Booking:
Here I did know immediately why the tourists are not happy, but it still turned out to be my favourite WASGIJ so far. In fact, I’m going to have to think about possibly keeping this to do again, I loved it so much. You can have a peek at the finished image here.
That was it for 2022, more to come in 2023, of course!
I did another Wasgij. This is part of the series where the finished puzzle shows what happens next. I have to say they do a good job of keeping the level of difficulty just right in this series 🙂 As usual, you can click here to see the finished puzzle.
I did a Wasgij, and as usual, you can find the image of the finished puzzle by clicking here.
I thought this was going to be pretty easy, there were some text that was really helpful, but after I had done the obvious bits it wasn’t all that easy after all. Great fun, as always!
Next I decided to do a puzzle that I couldn’t possibly finish in one sitting – and I didn’t. That said, it wasn’t as bad as I expected, at first glance I thought it was just a lot of people, but there as some easier bits as well. One piece missing.
The Antique Show by Jan van Haasteren, Jumbo, 1000 pieces. Completed on December 8, 2021.
Looks like the artist himself is present and selling his puzzles:
I finished the Wasgij-puzzle Uproar at the Vets. I won’t post the whole image here, but you can see it by clicking here.
A bird with tooth ache?
I also finally received two new Exit Puzzles that I ordered back in January:
They were originally both listed as 759-piece puzzles, but sadly, the Laboratory is only 368 pieces. The artist’s studio has the full 5 difficulty points for the clues, so I don’t expect I’ll be able to understand all of them 😊
So much can change in a week! A week ago, I was complaining about not being able to see games live in the stadium, but for the the second home game of the season some tickets were made available for members who don’t have a season ticket, and I managed to get one! The game on Saturday was against Freiburg, the same opponent as the last time I was in the stadium in February. The game in February was a tense 1-0 win, but on Saturday there were proper offensive fireworks and a resounding 4-0! It felt so good to be back. Anyway, here’s another football related puzzle 🙂
Goal by Jan van Haasteren, Jumbo, 500 pieces. Completed on September 25, 2020.
There is so much going on here that I relied on the box image a little more than I prefer. A lot of funny details, as usual with a van Haasteren. The obligatory shark and some dentures on the run:
I can’t resist putting in a photo from Saturday. This is from right after the first goal:
Today, me and my car are on a ferry from Helsinki to Travemünde in Germany, from where I will drive to Dortmund for a long stay. The ship isn’t exactly a cruise ship, it’s mostly a cargo ship that also takes passengers (and cars).
I think this may be the first image by van Haasteren I’ve ever done, and that’s because I tend to avoid Jumbo puzzles. I still think that the precision of the cut isn’t very good and it’s easy to place pieces wrong, but it doesn’t matter much with this kind of busy image. Otherwise, I find the Wasgij and van Haasteren series to be of excellent quality, although I’ve had some other puzzles from Jumbo with quite thin pieces. Anyway, this is definitely my kind of image, I’m always happy to do cruise ships.
Cruise Ship by Jan van Haasteren, Jumbo, 1000 pieces. Completed on June 14, 2020.
This is a strange scene. My first thought was that the woman is being robbed by criminals dressed as police, and then I thought they were police and looking for her companion (notice the third hand in the bed), but I think I’ve finally worked out what’s going on. They’re looking for an escaped criminal dressed in stripes …
… and he’s hiding behind the staircase.
The movie seems to be Jaws (but why black & white?).
A Titanic moment ruined.
The scout leader looks very happy to be tied up by his young charges.
Fellow librarians?
Enthusiastic fishers have some fish fingers delivered. Fish fingers seem to be all anyone ever eats on this ship, from the dining room to the bridge.
Fighting over a life west, never a good sign on a cruise ship.
This was very enjoyable, but my favourite cruise ship puzzle is still the Heye by Anders Lyon. In that puzzle, the movie was Robin Hood, by the way 🙂
Puzzler1909 