Porto's Ribeira district from the Dom Luis Bridge Portugal
|

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!

 

 

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Pura Vida at Mango Condos Tamarindo

    We stayed at Mango Condos for a month during our stay in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. Overall, Mango was one of the cheaper Tamarindo condos we looked at renting. We were quite happy with the value that we got for the price, despite a couple of minor problems.

    Price. We negotiated with the ever-patient owner, Julius, and got our two bed, one bath unit at Mango condo for a month, starting in mid-January, for $1,200 USD. When we went, the Tamarindo economy was still in a bit of a funk, but prices were starting to pick up again, so you might pay more.

    Security. The condos have a secure, locked front entrance, with separate keys for each condo. There are three levels, with condos facing either the dusty front street or the big leafy trees in back. A troupe of howler monkeys traveled through trees in the back a couple of times, making for some great wildlife watching out back. Because the condo is about a three minute walk from the beach, none of the condos have ocean views.

    Pool. The pool is nice but small, with a small kiddie pool and an attractive fountain. It’s great for a quick plunge, but not really big enough to hang out at all day. It’s in the center of a small courtyard, and out of the sun most of the day. The cafe tables by the courtyard are a great place to read the local paper or enjoy a drink…

  • | |

    Tickling The Florida Keys

    Not really having a plan except knowing we wanted to spend some time in the southern states, we booked a cheap flight from San Jose, Costa Rica to Miami, Florida. The weather was gorgeous and we were looking forward to North American style dining, shopping and ease of travel. It also didn’t hurt that the local language was English again. At a minimum, the kids were definitely excited to be able to watch cartoons in English now.

    After a few quiet days laying low and acclimatizing ourselves to the US, our wanderlust finally kicked back in. I hadn’t been to Florida since I was in my mid teens and really didn’t remember that much about it. One thing I do remember is that we didn’t go any farther south than St. Petersburg. This trip I was adamant about seeing the Florida Keys and going for a hike in the Everglades.

    We managed to rent a car and headed south for a few days of exploration. The kids and Micki were excited to see…

  • | |

    Active Volcanos, Coffee Plantations and Waterfalls

    While we were in San José last week we decided that we were going to go take a tour or two. Most people that come to Costa Rica fly in to San José, stay a few days, go on a bunch of tours then get their arses to the coast and the beaches. Though San José doesn’t offer much to do in the big city proper, there are some of the best sights in the country within an hour or two of the city limits. To be more exact, San José is in the center of the country and because of Costa Rica’s smaller size, almost anything in the country can be reached and experienced in one day. Of course, some of those days will be excruciatingly long but they can be done nonetheless.

    Since we have a two and five year old with us, a lot of the more common day trips weren’t going to cut it. As much as I would have enjoyed rafting class 4 and 5 rapids, rappelling down a majestic waterfall, galloping horses through a jungle or even ziplining down a 1/2 inch wide cable a mile long while precariously hanging a hundred feet in the air those just aren’t in the books for us this go around. Cole could probably do a few of them but Jordan is just too young.

    This led us to going on a lengthy day trip to some quintessential Costa Rican areas. There are literally three things that pop into my head when I say the name Costa Rica: jungles, volcano’s and coffee. We were lucky enough to stumble on a day trip that encompassed all three. We booked our trip..

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

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *