Porto's Ribeira district from the Dom Luis Bridge Portugal
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Looking Down From The Top of The World: In Photos

ByMicki Kosman

 “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” ― W.B. Yeats

Travel, by its very nature, is all about a switch in perspective.

When we’re in unfamiliar territory, things that seemed incredibly important in our everyday lives can suddenly seem trivial. And things that were trivial to us in our day-to-day lives (like a comfortable bed, or a good meal) are suddenly cherished.

So I was thrilled when our fellow travel bloggers (and genuinely awesome people) Heidi and Alan at Wagoner’s Abroad tagged us in an Across The Rooftops photo challenge, first started by Marianne from the East of Málaga blog.

From the post The Best of Lisbon 10 Things You Shouldn’t Miss

Looking down over the Tagus River, Lisbon, Portugal, red roofs
Looking down over the Tagus River

Searching out a great vantage point, and gazing out over the rooftops is one of my favorite ways to play with perspective when we go somewhere new. It’s always a bit disorienting to see a city from up high, but that’s the joy of it, I think.

Here are a few of my favorite places in the world to look down across the rooftops.

From our article Falling in Love with Porto: In Photos

Looking down from the hills above the Duoro Portugal
Looking down from the hills above the Duoro river
Porto's Ribeira district from the Dom Luis Bridge Portugal
Porto’s Ribeira district from the Dom Luis Bridge

Taken from Walking the Cold Walls of Avila and Enjoying the Sunshine

Looking down on the newer Avila, Spain
Looking down on the newer section of Avila, Spain

From our post This Should Be On Your Bucket List: A Hot Air Balloon Ride Over The Cave Houses Of Cappadocia

Ortahisar Castle and abandoned cave houses Turkey
Taken from our hot air balloon basket: Ortahisar Castle and abandoned Cave Houses

From the article VIDEO: Hot Air Ballooning with Butterfly Balloons in Goreme Turkey

Photo taken in Toronto, Canada, in early 2013.

Skyline in Toronto, Canada
Skyline in Toronto, Canada

From our post Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

View of KLCC Park from Petronas Towers Skybridge, Kuala Lumpur
View of KLCC Park from Petronas Towers Skybridge, Kuala Lumpur

From our article A Tour of Morocco Through our iPhone Lens

Looking down on the valley at Ait Benhaddou Morocco
Looking down on the valley at Ait Benhaddou Morocco

We hope you enjoyed!

 

 

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18 Comments

  1. Great post! The first thing I do whenever I arriving in a new city, town or region is find out if there is a good vantage point to view the city from. This has given me some pretty awesome views In my time.

    Reply

  3. I was amazed to see so many hot air balloons in the air in one place. Talk about a crowded sky? The terrain was really interesting. The hilly peaks looked like our giant ant hills in the northern territory of Australia. I’m fascinated by the castle and caves, great photo. I also have a passion for places and rooftops. Nothing like a view over rooftops. thanks found your post really interesting.

    Reply

  4. Wow! You’ve captured some fabulous rooftops, haven’t you? I was amazed how colourful the rooftops and buildings were in Portugal when we visited last October. It must be AMAZING to take a hot air balloon over the cave houses of Cappadocia. That’s definitely on MY Bucket List!

    Reply

  5. Love this post! We´re in Copacabana in Bolivia at the moment and our hostel is on a hill that overlooks the city – it reminds me of these photos!

    Reply

  8. Great aerials. I am thinking about buying one of those new drones to get these kind of shots. But then again, I suck with photos regardless, so it would probably turn out looking like a blurred pic of a dumpster. Oh well – I will leave it yo you guys.

    Reply

    1. Yeah, I have to admit that it’s been a long, hard struggle with photography over here, too. It’s taken quite a few years and a lot of sweat and I still have a lot to learn.

      Love the drone idea… I’d probably use mine to fly over to the local donair place for takeout.

      Reply

  10. Lovely photos! Especially those from Porto, it’s such a stunning city!
    We would like to invite you to participate in the next edition of our Travel Photography competition. Every week we publish 3 winning shots on our website and write a nice bio with a link to the photographers’ websites/FB/Flickr pages.

    Happy travels!

    Reply

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