Aya

A beautiful town featuring the castle where William was born and the creek behind it where his parents met. A lovely little legend, William’s father, Robert saw his mother, Herleve washing clothes in the creek. He was taken with her and William was born not long after. Before he was known as the Conqueror, he was called William the Bastard since he was. He was more offended when men made reference to his mother’s father being a tanner.
Anyway! Falaise, enchanting, check it out.

Bayeux has a place not just in WWII history, but in the Norman conquest of England, and that’s why I visited. It’s the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, an amazing record of the events leading up to October 14, 1066.

A great, unique museum. It’s housed in Frick’s mansion and all the pieces were chosen by him. The collection hasn’t changed much since Mr. Frick died. As a result, there’s no real theme to the art. Frick bought what he liked. The only theme is that Frick had a daughter who died young and he bought paintings of women who looked like his daughter would have. A very out of the ordinary, intriguing museum.

It was a great walk around the tower, for me anyways. I spent the entire time on my dad’s shoulders. My feet hurt. Thanks Dad.

A lovely and fascinating tourist trap.

Talkeetna is fun for the events around the year. Otherwise, meh. I got lost there when I was 6, really lost. It lasted about half an hour. Not a big place. Common launch for Denali climbers.

It looks like a prison. Didn’t always feel like one when I went there, but it looks like one. And I’m sorry, but the mascot? The Trojans. Guess how many jokes we came up with for that one.

I was born and raised here, and it’ll always be home. I didn’t get very far (Juneau), a mere 500 miles away. I usually tear up flying into the airport, unless the pilot mentions that we’re flying into the Don Young Terminal, then I want to throw up.
Anyway, love Anchorage!

If you’re interested in going here because of the ceiling, get a poster. The room is so crowded and the ceiling is naturally very high up there that you can’t see all that much. I’ve compared the Sistine Chapel and surrounding museums to a movie: you watch seemingly endless previews, and you like the previews but that’s not why you bought the ticket. Then you see the movie, and it’s okay, not bad, but not life-changing. Then you’re done with the movie, but the credits are still rolling and you can’t leave without reading them all.
I hope that makes some sense. Maybe it was like this because it was the last day of my trip to Italy, but I doubt that. It’s more interesting to know the story and study close up images.

Iowa is worth visiting to me because I have lots of family there, but otherwise I would skip it. I was there for less than two days once and though I saw mountains. They were clouds. Time to leave.