This week I have been thinking about how my Ankerstein hobby began.

Sixteen years ago I was teaching a course in Jena, Germany. There were almost always special events in the shopping center attached to the hotel I stayed in and this was where I discovered Ankerstein.

The first structures that I saw being built was so fascinating that I had to keep coming back to the exhibition and learn more about Ankerstein.

Near the end of the exhibition another builder had built this Italian Monastery, which also looked very cool. I had watched the builder add layers to the building following the layer plan and I was hooked.

He explained how you started with a Basic Box and that you then purchased extension boxes. The Basic Box is 6. When you buy box 6A you then have Set number 8. Then 8A brings you to Set 10, etc.. Each extension box comes with a plan book that shows you how to build the larger buildings possible with the number of boxes that you have. Each extension block introduces new blocks that allow you to build more intricate designs. The complete system includes 16 boxes.

At the time of the exhibition only the 10 boxes shown here were available from the factory. Production of Ankerstein had stopped long ago, but had been revived and they were slowly adding back the original sets. Now the complete system up to Set 32 is available.

The two buildings above were built with Set 24.

By the time I left Jena for the trip home I had purchased the Basic Box to take home with me.

I even built a few basic structures in my hotel room. I liked the feel of the stones and the concept behind Ankerstein.

When I got home I searched and found where I could buy the sets in the US, and slowly started buying the extension sets.

So now to why I have been thinking about the beginning of my hobby.

Today I completed building the first Ankerstein structure that I saw in Jena. Here is the Castle that I built with Ankerstein Set 24.

During the shelter in place I started building through the sets. I had previously only built through part of Set 20, but have always looked forward to building these first Ankerstein structures that I saw.

Each structure now takes a lot of time to build as Set 24 has a total of 1,987 stones available to build with.

I then like to let the structures stand on my table so that I can appreciate them for awhile.

The Italian Monastery is a little later in the plan book so it may be several weeks before I build it.

I could ramble on for awhile along with my wandering thoughts, but will bring this post to an end.

I have written many posts about Ankerstein, so if you want to learn more just type Anker in the search box.

Steven