This was great fun, and gin happens to be one of my favourite drinks. I always have Beefeater, but I’m happy to try other brands as well. Of the brands in this image, there are only four brands that I’ve definitely tried (Tanqueray, Beefeater, Bombay Sapphire, and Gin Mare).

For my puzzle challenge, this was the final puzzle, #6, something to drink. I started the first puzzle on January 2, and finished the last on March 8. That was 30 puzzles in 66 days (actually, a bit more than 30, because I did a few that were not part of the challenge). I’ll still continue doing the monthly challenges.

A collage of images of the imperial palace Schönbrunn in Vienna, and of the castles most famous inhabitants, the Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife, Empress Elisabeth. Elisabeth was a very popular figure, but she found it hard to adapt to the formality of the Austro-Hungarian court. She was eventually murdered by an Italian anarchist in Switzerland in 1898, aged 60. Her life (especially her youth as a glamorous empress) has inspired many movies, the most famous of which are from the 50s and starred a young Romy Schneider. The films were a huge hit in German speaking areas, and they were popular in Finland as well (my grandmother loved them). Netflix now has a TV-series about her called The Empress, and I just heard that there will be a second season.

The puzzle itself was nice. It’s an older Piatnik (I would say at least 20, maybe 30 years old), an Austrian brand. The quality is generally good, but you do get the odd false fit.

I did this puzzle in 2018, and then I took it into work, where I’m sure it’s been assembled a few times. Last year, I was reminded of it when Stacey assembled it, and a few weeks ago I saw it at work, and took it home for a second go.

It was still a lot of fun, and I did it more or less in one sitting, with just one short break. I did the panels with blue lips first, and finished the red lips last. After all the lips were finished, I still had to fill in the borders, which was my least favourite part of this puzzle. All in all, a great puzzle. By the way, the German title of the puzzle means “lip service” (Lippenbekenntnisse).

This was the second time I’ve done this puzzle. Not the same copy, though, I’ve bought it twice. It happens, both with puzzles and DVDs, but usually only if I haven’t done / watched the first one yet. In this case, I completed the first puzzle in 2009, and then bought another copy in 2017. As you might expect, it’s a nice but unremarkable puzzle 🙂

This collage was just as entertaining as it looks, and I loved every minute of it. While there are many beers that I recognize, such as Heineken, Sol, Foster’s and Guiness, the really big German brands are missing (no Paulaner, Warsteiner, Bitburger, Erdinger, or Beck, for example. There are some German beers in there, but the only one I really know is Kölsch. Oh well, it was still a very entertaining assembly!

Another Dalí painting, they really make great puzzles. I thought this might be difficult, and after doing the red and green cloth (?) I did have a moment of not quite knowing what to do next. I ended up completing the edges, and after that I just put a few pieces in here and there with no real plan, which is my favourite way of puzzling.

A painting by Bruegel from 1560 with children playing. The painting is incredibly detailed, and it worked well as a puzzle, although towards the end I relied on the box quite a lot.

Even though the painting is over 450 years old, there are games that I recognize from my childhood. The two “riders” are trying to pull the other one from their “horse”, and whoever stays in the saddle longer wins. Here the horse is formed by two children, but our “horses” were just one person and the “rider” rode piggyback. It was quite similar to this game.

This is not something that we used to do, but I think the children sitting down are trying to trip up the ones going through. There were lots of fun details, but definitely didn’t understand all of the games.

An image by Ruyer showing a brothel being evacuated during a fire. Some funny details (like the orchestra playing on), and it was a nice enough puzzle.

I originally completed this in 2017, but I have no photo of that. Later I took the puzzle to work, where both staff and customers have worked on it. There’s a piece missing in the photo, but I found it after I had taken the puzzle apart. Yes Roomba, I’m looking at you again.

A very enjoyable puzzle! The pieces for most of the different bottles were easy to pick out, and at the end, I was left with a small number of white(ish) pieces.

I was moved to have a glass of port 🙂