World Championship 2005

November 01, 2005. My journey starts in Leiden. This is the entrance of the main train station in Leiden.		I arrived at Amsterdam airport quite early. I used my extra time to watch the airplanes... This is the the engine of a KLM MD-11 :).	Time for a nice cup of coffee.
Alexander's wife and parents came to say goodbye.	Our airplane at gate E7.	This is Gilles van den Perenboom.	A close-up of Lars' hands.
Per and Ron watching Alexander solve the 4x4.	Alexander, Ron and Lars racing eachohter on the 4x4.	Lars tried to solve Gilles' maze cube. He spend more than 30 minutes making notes and trying to figure it out.	The maze cube isn't very easy... The goal is to make one black line, and all black lines must be connected with eachother.
Taking of from Memphis International airport.	Lars practicing some more.	The next morning: me posing in front of one of the big cubes.	There were some more big objects at the resort.
GOOFY!!!	Cubes at the restaurant.	I got to meet Casey Pernsteiner. She is the fastest female cuber I ever met. And by now, I believe she is unofficially the fastest female cuber in the universe :). Maybe WCA should recognise female cubing records.	Gilles in one of the rides at Epcot.
	Another ride in Epcot: Mission Space. This one really made me sick!	There was this really weird group of people solving Rubik's Cubes all the time.	...And I was one of them :s.
Per Kristen Fredlund showed me a lot of nice commutators during the whole week... Thanks Per ;).	Per showing me more stuff.		A life guard guarding an empty swimming pool... Only in America!
That night, Dave Campbell and Matt Walter (both from Canada) arrived. They were both very cool guys. World Champion Alexander working on the magic.	During one of the races, Matt and I had the same time during the same race. The third time this happened to me :).	Matt and me posing after our simutaneous 16.90 solve.	Ron van Bruchem practiced the 5x5 a lot that week. We were waiting at one of the rides at MGM studios, called 'The hollywood tower hotel' (the one with the elevator going up and down very fast).
Shops with Disney items for sale... They were everywhere!	Ron posing with his standard cubing face :D.	Ron still doing the 5x5. Lars solving the 3x3 on the foreground.	Arjan Bosse. He looked a bit too serious on the picture before, so I said: 'Hey Arjan, SMILE!!'.. And this is the result.
The Hollywood Tower Hotel... The ride was very cool! At the exit, we looked at pictures that were taken during the ride, and Ron looked kind of funny on them... So everbody paid a dollar, and we bought the picture. No, I am not publishing the picture here.	The Indiana Jones show. Before the show, Ron challenged us, saying noone had the guts to solve the cube right in front of the audience. So Lars took his cube, and solved it in front of about 1000+ people.	The crowd enjoying the Indiana Jones show.	DANGER, DANGER!!
A restaurant in Downtown Disney. Stefan and I solved the cube in less than 20 seconds, and got free deserts :). Stefan learned me some more about using commutators to solve any three-cycle of corners. So he gave me a few three cycles to try it.	Lars posing proudly with Rubik's Missing Link, after solving it for the first time.	At the car stunt show, some of the stunts were explained afterwards. One of the red cars has the steering wheel at the back, to make it look like the car is going backwards for a long time.	A lot of people were interested in our cubing-super-powers. We gave quite a few demonstrations :).
The man in the previous picture was nice enough to make a picture. On this picture: Gilles van den Perenboom, Jaap Scherphuis, me, Ton Dennebroek, Alexander Ooms.		More cubing... I tried to have my picture taken with Lilo and Stitch, but they just finished their workday :(.	Waiting for the bus to take us back to the resort.
Matt Walter practicing his One Handed skills.	Dan Harris, the UK#1 speedcuber, arrived that day. It was really cool to meet him again.	Betty Tregay. Wow!! A female cuber!!	Meeting Jon Morris, Frank Morris and Duane Call for the first time.
Lars Vandenbergh and Dan Harris team solving.	The was a nice ambiance around the restaurant... Everybody enjoyed meeting other cubers.	Me, racing with Edouard Chambon and Chris Hunt.	Jasmine Lee, with her husband Peter, and me. Jasmine and Peter got married two months after this.
	The UK#1 with his secret weapon: SUPER LUBE!!	Andy Camann was fast! He has a very quick and snappy style of cubing... But it seems to work for him.	Me racing Andy Camann. Ton Dennebroek, Jean Pons and Edouard Chambon watching.
Jon Morris... He did a good job, finishing 5th in 3x3-speedsolving.	One of the people working in Downtown Disney was really impressed when I solved the cube in less than 15 seconds :).	Dan Harris, Craig Brouchard, me and Lars Vandenbergh having fun at the amusement arcade... We LOVED the airhockey table... However, my digital camera died later that evening, because it got stuck between me and the table.	Craig and I were very serious about playing airhockey.. :D.
Is that a sensible strategy, Craig?	The guys from New York, racing Andy. It was funny, I've never been in New York, but for some reason, these guys looked very 'New York-ish' to me... Maybe I watch TV too much.	More airhockey...	Later that evening, my bigest cubing hero ever showed up: Dan Knights!!! It was so cool to finally meet this guy :).
Nathan Christie showing Dan Knights some moves.	Casey Pernsteiner and me again...	All these people were bothering DanK, because they wanted to have a picture of him... I didn't really want to bother him, but he suddenly joined me and Edouard Chambon in a few races.	This is how I responded when I heard I won $250 in the 2x2 competition. At that time, I wasn't really satisfied with my results in the 3x3 competition, but this succes made me happy again :).
Me, Masayuki Akimoto and Leyan Lo on the big screen.	Me, Masayuki Akimoto and Leyan Lo: 2nd, 1st and 3rd place in the 2x2-competition.