![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
So my travels to Lucca began with a red-eye trans-Atlantic flight from Boston to Paris where I caught my connection to the Pisa airport around 6 AM local time. The flights let me catch up on some films I've been meaning to see (Good Night, and Good Luck) and films my friends have been meaning for me to see (Pride and Prejudice - I still think the Colin Firth version will be better). The Air France flight also let me revisit reading newspapers in French.
Arriving in Pisa, I caught a shuttle bus to Lucca, a city somewhat between Pisa and Florence in Tuscany, Italy. Our hotel for the event was about 1.5 km outside of the city so I figured my best and only opportunity to visit the city was on the day I arrived as nothing was scheduled until the evening. Having already traveled through Rome, Venice, and Florence with my friend Garrett after college, I can say that a lot of Lucca seemed familiar. Churches in just about any direction you can point, tight streets meant for walking like Venice where getting lost is always a possibility but without the smell or fear of flooding, .... Lucca is most noteworthy for its city walls. Originally all contained within a set of ramparts, the city has long since outgrown its outer walls. However, the original ramparts remain and have been turned into a sort of city walk that you can get up on and walk completely around. Some parts have even been turned into small parks to sit and eat lunch or just read a book. It was a unique experience to walk around the city center at about 10m of elevation, but that is the experience to be had when visiting Lucca. I took some interesting pictures - my favorites likely being the shots you can get into the botanical gardens while on the walk - but I believe the time to visit Lucca is in the summer when the trees all have leaves and flowers are in bloom.
On arriving back at the hotel, I caught up with our team captain Nick Baxter and met some of the new faces on the US team, including Ron Osher (former WPC champion) and his son who was traveling with him. We had a reception to welcome the competitors and a meeting to discuss rules for the puzzles. There were not too many changes to be made and so we had most of the evening free. I got a chance to test solve Will Shortz's puzzle for his NPR broadcast this weekend. At that time, the challenge was this: "Take a noun the begins with the letter P as in Peter and change the first letter to a B as in boy to get a verb that describes something you do with it." The final puzzle as broadcast on NPR tells you the additional information that it is a four letter word, but in about 40 seconds I got my answer which was correct. I also got to quickly run through some of the puzzles in the SudokuMix magazine, the publication from the event organizers that includes Sudoku variations. Nick and I spent an hour or so playing an interesting foreign card game whose name roughly translates to "stick 'em" where you are trying to win tricks, but avoid cards in your color that cost you points. Needless to say, the fun strategy is to try to play to stick your opponents with the cards they do not want. My roommate Wei-Hwa Huang was arriving late that night so I stayed up to see him arrive and get him into the room and tried my best to sleep, with all thoughts on the task ahead for the next day.
Arriving in Pisa, I caught a shuttle bus to Lucca, a city somewhat between Pisa and Florence in Tuscany, Italy. Our hotel for the event was about 1.5 km outside of the city so I figured my best and only opportunity to visit the city was on the day I arrived as nothing was scheduled until the evening. Having already traveled through Rome, Venice, and Florence with my friend Garrett after college, I can say that a lot of Lucca seemed familiar. Churches in just about any direction you can point, tight streets meant for walking like Venice where getting lost is always a possibility but without the smell or fear of flooding, .... Lucca is most noteworthy for its city walls. Originally all contained within a set of ramparts, the city has long since outgrown its outer walls. However, the original ramparts remain and have been turned into a sort of city walk that you can get up on and walk completely around. Some parts have even been turned into small parks to sit and eat lunch or just read a book. It was a unique experience to walk around the city center at about 10m of elevation, but that is the experience to be had when visiting Lucca. I took some interesting pictures - my favorites likely being the shots you can get into the botanical gardens while on the walk - but I believe the time to visit Lucca is in the summer when the trees all have leaves and flowers are in bloom.
On arriving back at the hotel, I caught up with our team captain Nick Baxter and met some of the new faces on the US team, including Ron Osher (former WPC champion) and his son who was traveling with him. We had a reception to welcome the competitors and a meeting to discuss rules for the puzzles. There were not too many changes to be made and so we had most of the evening free. I got a chance to test solve Will Shortz's puzzle for his NPR broadcast this weekend. At that time, the challenge was this: "Take a noun the begins with the letter P as in Peter and change the first letter to a B as in boy to get a verb that describes something you do with it." The final puzzle as broadcast on NPR tells you the additional information that it is a four letter word, but in about 40 seconds I got my answer which was correct. I also got to quickly run through some of the puzzles in the SudokuMix magazine, the publication from the event organizers that includes Sudoku variations. Nick and I spent an hour or so playing an interesting foreign card game whose name roughly translates to "stick 'em" where you are trying to win tricks, but avoid cards in your color that cost you points. Needless to say, the fun strategy is to try to play to stick your opponents with the cards they do not want. My roommate Wei-Hwa Huang was arriving late that night so I stayed up to see him arrive and get him into the room and tried my best to sleep, with all thoughts on the task ahead for the next day.
Leave a comment