Day 4- I found the Sculpture!

*the wireless connection in the hotel doesn't like mac's, so I am not able to upload my sculpture picture which is a total bummer. \also, this Euro keyboard has a few extra keys so I'll try not to do this \ that often. I also found Churchillplein, which was quite exciting.

Switched hotels this am. The new one, Hotel Breitner, was not too far away. It is in a quiet residential street across from the NAI (Netherland Architecture Institute).

Andy and I grabbed a quick cup of coffee at the film lounge and now I'm sitting waiting for King of Ping Pong to start or Ping Pong Kingpen.

The film is in the Pathe theatre, which is a Euro chain. I would love to see a few more films in this theatre. The screen is huge! It seems to be as big as our Cinerama screen (if not bigger) and has comfy auditorium seating. The doors opened 30 minutes early, and there was no waiting in line like SIFF. I can't understand what anyone is saying, so I have idea if they are talking about something annoying. It is quite nice.

Spoke too soon. The phone of the man next to me just went off. It was the Seinfeld theme. Funny.

I hope to go see the Sonneveld House today, but \i think there is a flea market somewhere. Hopefully, I can find it.

I loved the film. It was beautiful. I can't get over the colors, white, blues- very pastel. Even the cats went with the set. Definetly not my reconceived notion on what it would be about. There was a Q&A with the director (1st feature). He gave alot of really interesting information. I'm very glad I saw it on this giant screen.

I had a couple of hours before the room was ready, so I headed over to the flea market. I hit a store along the way, the one that closed right before I got there. They had really neat stuff. I especially liked the jackets that were made out of old sails, but I moved on.

I found the flea market with no trouble. There wasn't anything too special. Some neat furniture and some huge needlepoint pictures, but nothing I could take home. My favorite section was the fresh fish. Just about every kind under the sun, in an array of colors and sizes. There was one called a Sepia fish, that was a big black gooey blob. I wonder how you cook that?

The great thing about travelling with a laptop (unless you can't log on like tonight\) is being able to research stuff on the road. Last night I google earthed the "destroyed city statue" and was able to pin point its location. It was actually only a few blocks from where I got all turned aroudn yesterday. I just kept checking the map until I found it! I took a ton of pictures so Mel can have her choice of any angle.

I decided to skip the Sonnevelt house, and save it for tomorrow. Plus, I'm not feeling that great. I picked up a weird dry cough, and the chills.

I got to the hotel and they lady at the front desk told me a gentleman left me a note! Exciting. "I put the luggage up in the room. I'll see you later. XOXO-Andy". Hurray. I wasn't looking forward to schlepping all of our luggage up to the room.

Our hotel room is cute. Total opposite of our first hotel which was modern. This room looks like a grandma camp, but had a heated town rack in the bathroom so that is fun.

Since it is on a residential street, you can look right into the apartments. Usually apartments and houses are set so far back from the street, you rarely have the opportunity to be up close. My mom would love it! One of the placese had the cutest tiny yard, with a pair of red clogs sitting on a bench.

I wanted to check out the new neighborhood to find a place for dinner. We have retired our favorite place (at least for tonight). The area is a mix of record shops, high end electronic stores, really cool childrens shops, cafes and coffee houses- about 10. The whole trip so far I had only seen one. I hadn't eaten lunch so I stopped off at a bakery that had a bacon, cheese and onion scone in the window. Oh, was it tasty.

I needed some coffee to keep awake, so I stopped off at another recommended place near the hotel. I ordered an espresso, which made the kid laugh behind the counter. When I ordered the Apple flap, he laughed even harder and said "I guess there is no translation". I realized it probaby wan't a Midwestern A, and more of an O. I did'nt care. He wasn't mean, more like he hadn't seen alot of American's in a while. Side note: I have only heard two Brits speaking. No other English for four days.

My Apple flap was delicious, even thougth it probably wansn't the best lunch. I figured I have walked so much, it didn't matter.

I headed back to the 1st bakery to buy Andy a scone. It was only 3:45pm and they were closed already! Ack. Oh well, I found a dinner place so that will take the stress out a finding a place tonight.

I ended up that our restaurant only serves pizza on Tuesdays, which was fine by us. Our server was this cute blonde with dreds (which I normally hate). But, her personality and face was a dead ringer for my little sister Caity. It was uncanny. She was super bubbily and friendly and very helpful at translating the pizza toppings that we couldn't figure out.

I ended up ordering what looked like a mushroom pizza and Andy ordered a spicy pizza (pepperoni). Mine actually had ham and Andy kept finding stuff on his. "Hey this is chicken....Oh, there is corn on this!. They were both yummy, but Andy's was REALLY spicy. I still can't get over the Dutch Caity.

We are now in our hotel lobby, which has a breakfast room, fireplace and a bar. It is rare that Andy is with me at night, but I am realzing that we aren't even spending the time together! I'm at this computer, and he is writing. But that's okay, we recapped at dinner. It is nice to be able to have a beer in the lobby (really old school) ane then head back up to the room.

I think Andy's favorite part of the hotel is that you leave your key at the front desk, like in the old movies. I had no idea and walked around with it all day. Oops.

I read online on tripadvisor that people conplained that the hotel smells like the owner smokes cigars 24/7 at the front desk. I does, but it's okay. He is a cute old man and said to me when I was checking in, "shopping is that way and there is nothign else to see".