Geek Overload…

A critical mass of gaming geeks descended on Essen for the annual game fair over four days in October with around 150,000 people in attendance to look at, play and purchase a variety of gaming items that include board games, card games, miniature table top games, live-action-role-play (LARP) clothing and equipment, role play games (RPG), comics, collectables, puzzles, outdoor games and all manner of gamer related paraphernalia.

I travelled to Dusseldorf airport and met Marc there who had flown in from Sweden. We then took the efficient and cheep train to Mulheim where we checked into the Handelshof Hotel where many regular visitors to Essen stay and the hotel accommodates them by providing a room for late night after show gaming.

The hotel is comfortable and reasonably appointed with its own bar and restaurant that provides good food and drink. The staff are very helpful and even remembered us from last year as we registered. Prior to leaving we became aware that there was a rail strike on and I was concerned about how I would get to the airport but the receptionist made several calls and surfed the internet and found out the some trains were still running and provided me with the details along with a taxi number and price should there be a problem.

Several serious gamers are regular visitors to the show and we were invited to join them in their games. To qualify for a serious gamer you should visit on the Thursday and Friday to ensure you find the latest releases and buy them by the sack-barrow load sometimes without even knowing anything about the game. Some of the UK visitors drive over so that they can fill their car up with games (admittedly some run online shops but not all of them). Visitors come in from all over the world further afield than us (USA, South Africa, and New Zealand included).

Marc and I visited the show on Friday and Saturday. I left to return home early Sunday and Marc went back to the show before leaving later in the evening. The weekend visitors tend to include more children and women than the earlier days changing the dynamic of the show a little.

We managed to play a few games that we enjoyed though there weren’t as many standout games as the previous year for us. I bought a couple of games, both suited for casual gamers rather than serious tactical gamers.

Om Nom Nom (Brain Games), the objective is simple – eat more than your competitors, do you go for the high value food and risk being eaten by predators? It is a simple and quick game that kids would love.

Ifrito (Zvezda), here you need to capture three of your opponents flying carpets or nine of his Ifrito to win. It is a tactical game of strategy that balances aggression against defence and can be played with 2, to 4 players in 3 dimensions.

There were many other interesting games but I had to balance what I would like to play and those games I thought I could interest others in playing (many who do not regularly play games – I know, why would I be friends with these type of people?).

Canals and Culture…

We (Terry, Gill, Sue and I) flew to Amsterdam from Gatwick recently and we used the lounge facilities (free wine) to get us in the mood for our holiday. The flight was short, less than an hour, and is more like being on a bus than a plane. The transfer from Schiphol to the hotel was arranged through the hotel and we were driven by a friendly local Turkish guy who chatted entertainingly throughout and showed us pictures of his wife and their young son.

We stayed at the Amsterdam Wiechmann Hotel, a family run hotel that incorporates three adjacent buildings overlooking the Prinsengracht canal. This was picked by my dad when my folks had planned to visit Europe on a river boat cruise where we were to meet them at its destination of Amsterdam. I think mum and dad would have loved the place. The ground floor communal areas include a lobby with interesting artefacts in it such as a suit of armour (that looks like a small steampunk stormtrooper) a large scruffy Alsatian dog and a gold disc from Emmylou Harris, a comfortable lounge/bar with equally eclectic décor such as a collection of teapots and a huge safe, and the breakfast room with its large picture windows offering a wonderful view of the canal and bridge over it.

The hotel staff were very helpful and courteous and the rooms were comfortable and well appointed, the only downsides being that there were bed-bugs in Terry and Gill’s room and the journey up and down the typically steep Dutch canal house stairs was hard work.

We arrived late on Friday evening and we told that we should go out quickly if we wanted to get a meal before the kitchens closed, and so we dropped our bags off and went out. We had a meal at the first place we came to which was not the café suggested but the Andaz (Hyatt) hotel. The food was fine but it was a more upmarket venue than we would have liked. When we walked along a bit further to look for a bar we came across the café, called Het Molenpad where we found an atmosphere more to our liking, some nice beers and had a relaxed end to our outbound journey.

After breakfast we enquired about where we could purchase an IamsterdamCity Card, a tourist card that gives access to various attractions and other perks, and were directed to a kiosk next to the Westerkerk. We purchased the 48hr card and went to see the Anne Frank house but were amazed at the length of the queue as it was just past the opening time of 9am. We decided to come back here later and headed on into town, first to Dam square and then down towards the train station where we took one of the free canal boat tours that came with the card.  The Holland International tour guided us around many of the city canals with audio commentary of highlights to be seen along the way. It is a good way to orient yourself and to start to work out where you would like to visit later.

We found that the card did not get us into all of the attractions in the city and we gave the Palace a miss instead taking the tram to near where we visited the Museum Van Loon, the historical home of one of the founders of the Dutch East-India Company, where we found a lavish and grand old house full of wonderful treasures.

Around the corner we found a little unassuming café called Pit that was decorated in a quirky, trendy style and served simple but tasty lunch time fare.

Refuelled we then ventured off to another grand old house, Geelvinck house, home to another rich Dutch family, and that had been lovingly restored and decorated with period pieces.

We then took another tram and headed out to the museum area where we went in to visit the Van Gogh Museum to revel in this artist’s history and creativity.

We had a full day by now and so we journeyed back towards Dam square where we walked back to see if the queue at the Anne Frank House was shorter, and it wasn’t sufficiently for us to consider standing in it, so we went to a nearby café to regroup and plan.

The place we stopped at was called the Bistro Bij ons (with us), specialising in Dutch food, and here we had a drink and some bitterballen snacks.

We went home to change and freshen up before coming out again back to the bistro to see if they had a table, but unfortunately they were fully booked (restaurants seem to have a busy period around 7 to 8pm). So we wandered around trying a few more places without luck until we came upon a place called ThaiFusion that had a table free. Unfortunately they were understaffed and had a lot of takeaway orders to fill so we suffered with long delays to our food. When it came the food was very nice to by then the shine had gone off the place.

We returned to Het Molenpad for a ‘cleansing ale’ before we retired for the night.

The next day we headed out to visit a house that Terry had read about, and strolled through an artist’s market at Spui where we looked around and also nosed in at the interesting shops near the university where we spotted a few interesting cafes. We took a tram to Rembrandtplein where there is a sculptural interpretation of his ‘night watch’ painting and another collection of artist stalls to browse. At the Willet-Holthusysen house we were blown away by the grandeur of the place with its lavish rooms and formal garden, but it was nothing to the ‘dining with the Tsars’ collection of ostentatious royal dining services that was on display at the Hermitage Amsterdam.

After this we found another small, intimate and cosy café for lunch. Café Langereis continued the Dutch eclectic decor and it served tasty and unfussy snacks along with yummy cakes and beer.

After lunch we went to the Handbag and Purse Museum which showed the evolution of this fashion accessory and included some odd and expensive (and I was reliably informed, gorgeous) examples.

From the Rembrandtplein we took another tram to the botanical gardens, where although the plants outside were not much to see at this time of year, the greenhouses were still full of interesting specimens including a butterfly collection.

We returned to check out the queue at the Anne Frank house and saw it was still too long so we returned to the bistro for an early dinner planning to rise early in the morning to get down to be first in the queue. The food at the bistro was wholesome and uncomplicated traditional Dutch workers food and my stamppot with smoked sausage was about the rudest looking thing I had ever been served, luckily it tasted pretty good. The desert menu was themed around old time Dutch musicians (down the road is a monument to Johnny Jordaan) and had some intriguing English descriptions, so much so I had to order the ‘flipped bitches’ which turned out to be fried bread covered in sugar and cinnamon. Again we finished off the night at Het Molenpad.

In the morning of our last day we checked out and put our luggage in storage before grabbing a quick breakfast and getting to the Anne Frank house for 8am, an hour before the doors opened. Even at this time we were not the first, there being a dozen or so people keener than us. There is a new exhibition centre next to the original house that wasn’t there when we visited Amsterdam many years ago. It was a truly moving experience, especially for Gill whose Jewish family left Germany on the Kindertransport. We had to take a moment to recompose ourselves over a coffee / tea before we left. By now the queue was down the street, around the corner and disappeared around the church.

The weather was glorious so we strolled back down towards the train station, where I wanted to get a picture of the multi-story bicycle parking, and over to walk through the Chinatown area and along some of the Red Light district. This led us back to near the university so we found the café we had seen the day before and stopped for lunch. Kapitein Zeppos was another great and quirky establishment with a simple and delicious menu served by a very tall, slim and friendly waitress. The place looks like it has a pretty good night life too, though we wouldn’t be around to catch that.

Afterwards we strolled over to the flower market where many different bulbs and flowers could be bought. On our leisurely stroll we stopped for a while at the grungy café de Eland before picking up some liquorish or ‘drop’ at a supermarket and returning to the hotel to pick up our bags and the taxi ride back to the airport.

All in all we had a good holiday that could only have been made better by having mum and dad there to enjoy it too.

More of wot I have read…

Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz

I have read a few of the Odd Thomas stories and I guess the novelty and originality of them has started to wane as this book was a difficult read, slow and dull it failed to grip me and I struggled my way through it feeling unsatisfied overall. The writing was fine and the humour was sprinkled with a light touch but it lacked drama and felt unconvincing. Nevertheless it could just be me so if you are a fan I am sure you will make your own mind up.

‘Odd Thomas sees dead people…

They cannot speak to him or do him harm; but still, it’s unnerving, living between two worlds, facing our darkest fears.

Just off California’s Pacific Coast Highway stands Roseland: a mansion, protected by high walls. Odd finds refuge there, with the very pregnant, and very mysterious, Annamaria.

But the house contains terrible and bloody secrets. It is haunted by lingering spirits, and by nameless beasts which lurk in the grounds, riding the shifting tides of time.

Lately, Odd has suffered dreams of doom and terror. Roseland has welcomed him in; but will it ever let him leave?’

The Man Who Was Thursday by G K Chesterton

This is an odd little book that suffers somewhat from dated attitudes and sensibilities that are possible lost on me. The writing is interesting if occasionally archaic and the humour is often baffling. The plot seems to be obvious at times but this might be intentional, I am not sure if it was planned this way or is just naive. But for all of this the story is entertaining and rattles along at a good pace to its conclusion making some interesting political, social and religious comments along the way. I think it is worth it to read something different from the often hyper real violent crime / spy stories of today.

‘In this strange, haunting novel of anarchists and undercover policemen, Gabriel Syme is sent by Scotland Yard to infiltrate the Central Anarchist Council, and soon finds himself voted to the position of ‘Thursday’. As Syme digs deeper, his discoveries about the anarchists and their plans lead to a desperate chase across Europe. But he has still to face the greatest terror that the Council has: the leader, Sunday…’

Gaming Geekness…

Recently I joined a gaming day with Martin and James where we played a few new and a few favourite tabletop games including.

Red Dragon Inn – what do adventurers do after they have been on a dungeon bash, well they go back to town and find the nearest hostelry where they drink, gamble and fight until the landlord throws them out for drunkenness, having no money or because they are unconscious. The last man standing wins.

The Agents – the agencies have disbanded and the now unemployed agents must find their own way in a dangerous world by recruiting other agents, securing contracts and eliminating the completion.

Manifest – in a golden age of shipping you must secure lucrative contracts, deliver goods to their destination avoid pirates and other perils of the open sea and do it all before your competitors.

Martian Dice – your Martian overlords command you to bring back samples of earth lie for their experiments. Capture chickens, cows and humans before the earth defences shoot you down. Be the first to secure your quota to win the praise of your masters.

Dungeon Roll – take your band of adventures into the dungeon defeating monsters and collecting treasure as you delve deeper into more dangerous levels where dragons lurk.

Rocket Race – build your steampunk rocket ship from weird and unlikely components and launch it into space before your competitors can, but beware of saboteurs and faulty parts.