Okay, I went back to Aldi.

I found a shopping cart with the quarter wedged in the slot and used it for my shopping. I just got a few things this time, but Aldi’s starting to grow on me.

A nice lady showed me how to get my quarter back, and this one from an abandoned cart belonging to a complete stranger, so we’re all square, Aldi.

One of the items I bought was a really nice Dutch beer called “Holland 1839,” which was yummy. So was the white Dutch cheese I sprinkled liberally, melted, over the French bread I served with pasta tonight.

My students will recall how much I love Holland, thanks, in no small part, to Jan Vermeer. Here is his famous “Girl in a Pearl Earring on a KLM Flight Reading an Annual Report with Champagne.”

 

When Ms. Derbidge and I took students to Holland, I fell crazy in love. I stood in front of Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” for about two days.

 

 

I said “Hallo” to Rabobank in downtown Amsterdam, which is where ours came from. And I’m not bitter, even though it was my Dad who came up with the name “Mid-State Bank.”

 

I marveled at the density of the bicycles, was nearly killed by two or more, including mothers on what are called “cargo bikes,” with up to four children bouncing happily in the bucket out front.

 

“Laten we de toeristen overvallen, kinderen!”
(“Let’s run over the tourists, kids!”)

I whispered to Freddy Rolland, our tour guide: “Is it just me, or are Dutch women really, really pretty?” Freddy laughed knowingly. Be careful. They’re on bicycles and could kill you in a heartbeat.

I loved the richness of Amsterdam’s Jewish heritage, and its heartbreak. Anne Frank’s movie-magazine cutout of the actress Myrna Loy–I loved her in The Thin Man with William Powell–is preserved under Plexiglas in the Upstairs Annex.

I gained a new and much deeper appreciation for Cheese. It is capitalized in Holland. As is the word “Cow.” They are the happiest Cows I have ever seen, and I know Cows, having been on a first-name basis with Daisy, my big brother’s 4-H heifer.

If there’s any city I would go back to in an instant, it’s probably in Italy. Amsterdam is the grand exception. So any grocery store that reminds me of that place is going to get my business.