Knox the Fox cruises with Leah Cross & friends

Tony and Leah Cross with Carol and Larry Marr

A high school friend, Leah Bellamy Cross, her husband, Tony, with their friends Carol and Larry Marr recently went on one of those amazing ultimate trips. They spent five days in Amsterdam, and then boarded the ship Rotterdam VII on Holland America Cruise Lines for a 6-day cruise in Europe and then a 9-day trans-Atlantic cruise back home by way of Portugal and the Bahamas. Of course, I had Knox the Fox secretly trail along with them.

The time in Amsterdam included a visit to the Anne Frank House where her family and four other Jews hid for two years. They also toured Westerkerk, the reformed Protestant church where Rembrandt is buried though they have lost the records of the exact location. Anne Frank wrote how soothing it was to hear the carillon in the church tower play.

During the European part of their cruise, the couples had several stops including Belgium, France and England.

Normandy, France, provided a visit to Omaha Beach. Tony’s father was part of the troops who entered Europe in WWII, but thankfully was not in that perilous first round. Leah reflects, “It is such a peaceful place now where people come to enjoy the beach, able to do so as a result of what happened so many years ago.”

The stop in Dorset, England, led to a tour of Athelhampton. The manor was built in 1086 and the hall in the 15th century. Thomas Hardy once helped to work on the house. It is surrounded by 20 acres of gardens.

The nine days across the Atlantic Ocean included a bypass of Portugal. The docking was cancelled by hurricane force winds that brought a beautiful rainbow almost to their balcony. Then a visit to the Bahamas and final docking in Fort Lauderdale.

Knox the Fox is having such vicarious adventures with my friends and is off this week seeing the Northern Lights so look for his tales of that escapade coming soon!

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