The 4th Puzzle And A Guzzle: London A to Z

THE PUZZLE AND THE GUZZLE:

That's about as close to an A to Z as a can of lager should ever get.

So says The Guzzler, puzzler extraordinaire, and observer of the Highway Code as much as, if not more than, the next man.

The Guzzler would never dream of storing alcoholic beverages in his glove box alongside his driving gloves, half-finished tube of Extra Strong mints, spare fuses, loose change and stained and dog-eared A to Z, the road atlas any discerning driver wouldn't leave home without.

Intending to improve his knowledge of London's streets, The Guzzler undertook the challenge offered by this 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of the roads, parks and stations of England's capital city. In association with a French lager.

Having checked that the Congestion Charge didn't apply, and that air pollution was at a safe rate, The Guzzler opened the box and immediately dipped his toes in The Thames, the swathe of blue that cut through this puzzle.

The greenery of the parks was next:

and the logo top left. But those aside, what a beaster this proved to be. Certainly many of London's streets seemed to be paved in gold. The same golden colour.

The Guzzler needed the strength of that Kronenbourg, and nearly 1664 minutes to get through it.

The Guzzler experienced the whole A to Z of emotions, from Anger to the Zzzzzz of utter boredom.

But when the Guzzler reached the point of despair, the black train lines gave fresh impetus, along with the Kronenbourg of course.

With the finish in sight, it became evident, something was lacking in east London...

As The Guzzler knows only too well, the longer a puzzle takes, the higher the chance of a piece of the jigsaw going missing.

Even the experts at New Scotland Yard and Baker Street (both on this map) would struggle to locate the missing edge piece. Did it ever exist? We will never know.

It proved the only blot on an otherwise eye-catching landscape...

As a sad footnote to the story of this Puzzle And A Guzzle, one of the fish that swam in the tank just in view behind, passed away soon after the completion of the puzzle, his spirit forever swimming up the blue swathe of The Thames. RIP Bobby.

JIGSAW ENJOYABILITY: 4
Good for expanding knowledge of London. Bad for tired eyes late at night, especially under the influence of Kronenbourg 1664.

JIGSAW TRICKINESS: 8
Almost as difficult as the 3rd Puzzle And A Guzzle, but the presence of variation in every piece, and local knowledge of some of the London areas made the task a little easier.

The 3rd Puzzle And A Guzzle: London Underground Map Harry Beck (1933)

This puzzle

was tackled with dubious help from:

8 bottles of ST CERVOIS Continental Lager. Brewed in Scotland. Hmmm. That's about as Continental as Wensleydale cheese.

It didn't take a puzzling genius to work out that tacking this beige beast of a 1000 piecer was to be a tale of two halves.

The first required the piecing together of the map, station stops and underground lines from the early days of the London tube network. The second stage would require the jigsawing of the remaining beige outer, a task I predicted would take at least two weeks and most of the lager. And so it proved.

A puzzle that takes so long is inevitably going to take some damage. Take this stain at Regents Park. Butter dripping from a thickly laden slice of wholemeal? Tea dribbling from a fresh cup? Scottish-brewed Continental lager? Snot? Even the great British detective who resided at the next station on the line would struggle to solve that mystery.

Another stained piece top right led to this ill-fit. But even more disturbing, especially for puzzlers who like to start with the edges, is the difficulty of the bordering around the entire puzzle. Much lager was supped (and spilt) trying to solve it. 

Some pieces had fit snugly in the wrong place, at least on one or two sides. This required a complete reconstruction of some patches of edge once the inside had been completed. London's a dangerous place, where trying to fit in with your surroundings sometimes doesn't work out. And this puzzle proves that.

The 8 bottles of Cervois did not last the duration, so your Guzzling Puzzler was forced to drink Yorkshire Tea until completion.

Users of the London Underground will be used to delays, and there was certainly a big hold up on the lines doing this. The Guzzling Puzzler can only apologise for the delay caused to your journey.

JIGSAW ENJOYABILITY: 3

So much beige made this puzzle a real challenge

JIGSAW TRICKINESS: 9 

The bits with something on them other than pure beige were easy. The rest? They nearly derailed the Guzzling Puzzler.