After a breakfast of smoked mackerel on toast with Zaanse mosterd accompanied by Rafaël's squeals of disgust, I go hunting for the Internet cafe on Martelaarsgracht that Cyrus has told Rina about. I am not really all that martyred over the search since Martelaarsgracht is the name of the first block of Spuistraat when you're coming from the Centraal Station, and the name of the Internet cafe is "The Internet Cafe". Yes. A five minute walk from home.

It's a clean and not-too-noisy place with positions set up so that your laptop is held at a comfortable height. I have ninety messages, mostly spam, of course, but still, some nuggets from the faithful. What a relief it is to have all my Internet needs met at a fairly reasonable price.

Here's a well-used poster board on Spuistraat between my place and the Internet Cafe.

Just before noon Rafaël and I go to the ANB Bank and discover that since 9/11 foreigners have to have a work permit here to open a checking account. So much for that idea. The nice lady at the bank suggests that I drop by Rosmarijnsteeg to change the fifty-peso Mex's. I realize that I need to check on the official day's price of gold plus the weight of the mex to four decimal places as a precaution against getting fleeced, both of which I can do on my next visit to the Internet Cafe.

So we stop for tasty sandwiches at de Drie Graefjes, that little place huddled in the shadow of the Nieuwe Kerk there on Gravenstraat and then hit the Albert Heijn again. This visit I'm scrupulously saving all my receipts so that I can fully document just how much cheaper food is here in one of Old Europe's most expensive cities. Remember the Good Old Days when Americans were the healthiest people on the planet and food in America was cheaper? Well, now all the Old European countries out-do us in all the health indicators. And here in Amsterdam at the most expensive grocery chain you get two liters (over a half gallon) of 2% milk for €0,96, 335g. of Zaanse mosterd for €0,82, a 170 ml. tube of mayonnaise for €0,29, a liter of mango/pineapple juice for €1,29. Well, somebody's got to support our class of ultra-millionaires at the top of the heap, and it's all of us down here underneath 'em. I've not seen anything that more clearly shows this than these grocery prices.

In the afternoon we walk with Rina and Hans over into the Jordaan to the bar on Prinsengracht owned by some old friends of theirs, Els and Rene. It's her birthday. How awful to have your birthday two days before Queen's Day. Kinda like a birthday on the 23rd of December...or as Amanda (who I wrote about in Amsterdam by Segway and who I'm delighted to see is there) puts it, on the 2nd of July. It's quite a gesellig gathering, and I feel both out-of-place and very privileged to be brought to it since everybody else is either family or old friend. Luckily I had the wit about me to bring a bar of the California Bay Laurel soap that Rina likes, so at least I have something to hand to the hostess/birthday girl.

I try to be as unobtrusive as possible so that there's not the spectacle of everything being translated into English for me, but of course this means that I understand about ten percent of what's going on. It is so incredibly frustrating to be able to pretty much read Dutch and yet find the spoken language so difficult to understand.

Near the end of our stay I get into conversation in English with one of the guests and find him just delightful. It turns out he spent a couple of years in Texas in the eighties as a visiting professor of art at the University of Texas in Austin, and I pump him for information about literature and Dutch culture/history.

For dinner Rina has cooked us hete bliksen (hot lightening!) I have arrived! I have finally got so close to some Dutch friends that not only have they admitted to me that there is a Dutch cuisine, something that is usually stoutly denied, but also they have actually cooked some of it for me! To make "hot lightening," boil some pork belly and reserve the stock. Then cook apples and potatoes together in the stock, mash them, and serve them with the pork belly on the side. It is delicious.

Tomorrow, it's the eve of Queen's Day, and we have a tentoonstelling, the opening of a multiple artists' show, at the stedelijkmuseum...a city museum.