It was all a bad dream??!!

Up at 8, out the door at 8:30, having fed Danny some of the baked goods we picked up yesterday at an Algerian Bakery we wandered past on our never ending ramble! And we ramble again. Poor Jerry, we are set to take the metro, and the stop we go to doesn't have a ticket machine. Up to the street we climb and start walking to the next stop. Yes, to answer your question, it is sunny and about 8 degrees this morning! And 2 inches of snow on the ground. Rotterdam is not big into shoveling it seems :)
Catch the metro, then walk and walk and walk, looking for street signs, and finding many streets without them. My feet freeze up much faster this time. When we arrive at our destination, Marrxinstraat, there is no number 19. We circle,  recheck, find every number up and down to 21...then nothing! Danny and I take shelter in an Arab market where I buy him a cheery hazelnut drinkable yogurt(note for future, nuts clog up the spout!) some wasa with cream cheese, a candy bar, and an apple. Provisions for the next leg of this epic hike. Jerry meanwhile has texted the agent and gotten no response. At 10:30 we finally give up and head out again. Thats it--we're done! We wait about 15 neverending minutes for the tram and ride it and the metro back to the hotel. Danny is too cold to stop to eat, so still no coffee for me. We return to our room and warm up again and we decide we need to instantly do something fun and close by. Museums are looked at and we decide to go to the NAI Museum(Netherlands Architecture Institute). Rotterdam is famous for its modern architecture because the city was virtually destroyed in WWII. Jerry's coworker Nico told Danny "the Germans took care of the demolition and the Dutch did the building!" The whole of the Netherlands is quite known for its architecture though, and this museum is a tribute to it.
First things first, a visit to the sunny cafe for my coffee! Danny tries the orange cake and a coffee as well. Now we are ready for action. The museum is fantastic. There are four museum wings, each with its own exhibit, and all are interactive and thought provoking. One was especially cool. It had an English audio which you waved in front of models of buildings and developments from all over Holland, and heard 1 or 2 of six different people talk about the building, if they liked it or not, and it was so interesting. Danny listened to every word on every building!  It was a great choice and we all loved it.

outside of the museum

a really cool reading table in the cafe

i never get tired of these coffee shots!

checking out an exhibit

this house cantilevers over the ocean in Spain

peeking into the exhibit on famous buildings in the Netherlands..want to take a look?

here you go

peek inside!

overlooking the bookstore

people can build their own houses!

a sculpture on the ceiling of the cafe

you can draw and design and build on this table

We walked back to the center , with plans to go to eat at a restaurant we had spotted on the way to the museum. As we were walking we came upon a beautiful street with a canal down the center and people skating on it. Well, I've read Hans Brinker, and there was no way we could pass up the chance to say we skated on a canal in Holland, even if it was only in shoes! So we all got out there and did a few laps, what fun and what a memory. 

a taxi and a row house

walking along the canal

skating! on a canal in Holland!

After that I told the boys "lets pretend we got up at 11:30 this morning(the time we got back from our ordeal) and we had had a bad dream that we had gone walking again and gotten frozen again, but it was only a dream" They readily agreed, so remember, the description above of this morning? It was only a dream!
Bazaar was a fantastic lively middle eastern restaurant with the best falafel I have ever eaten! Danny had baked feta and Jerry had veal and I had sweet pepper soup, and we all split a big falafel salad. So warm, so good!

the ceiling above our table at Bazaar

food shot! Falafel salad

eat your heart out Progresso!

baked feta dinner

veal meal

 Then off to get more Euros(this country is a bit pricey!) and back to the hotel for more swimming, sauna and steam room.

 Did I mention already that no one wears clothes in the sauna? Okay then!  We are ready to head home tomorrow, flight leaves at 8:30am from Amsterdam, so we're being picked up at 5:30am. No definite house yet, but some good leads from Wednesday, and lots of knowledge to help us choose on line, or when we get here.