10192019 – Saturday 

Today our goal was to have lunch at the Lindengracht street market.  This big market is only on Saturday.  Just a little info I thought you would want to know: I lived on Linden Street in Bloomington, IL until we moved when I was 8.  How’s that for Karma, or whatever?  After our lunch we set off to buy some Starbucks coffee.  The curving and angled streets are a challenge when you are used to Chicago’s grid layout.  The coffee grinder at the first Starbucks we stopped at on Damrak didn’t work.  So Sue decided that we would get the coffee after church.  So we headed across town to the apartment.  We passed the Oude Kerk and the Old Sailor bar on our way, they are both in the Red Light District.  On a Saturday there are a lot of tourists in the Red Light District.  We heard music as we got closer to the apartment, and we eventually saw a crowd walking along a street with a truck with a rock band in the back.  As we got closer to home there were police cars and officers on the street in front of our apartment.  They were shepherding the crowd as they walked.  It was mores a walk than a march.   We stopped to watch and take photos.  The comments on the photos tell you what we learned about the march.

We had a short rest at home before we set off for church.  We were going to De Krijtberg church for the English Mass at 17:15.  The church was pretty full.  During the Mass at the Consecration a phone started ringing.  Fortunately it wasn’t an obnoxious ring, like a French police siren that I have on my phone.  After the priest finished raising the Chalice he told us that it was his phone doing the ringing. He had forgotten to turn it off.   Everyone got a chuckle out of that. He said no one is perfect.  We did get our Starbucks coffee, Sumatra on the way home.  

We ate in tonight and watched TV.  Tomorrow is the Amsterdam Marathon.  The route takes it within about a 15 minute walk from the apartment, so we’ll go out to see the lead pack go by.  

Saturday Oct 19 Amsterdam