The Tower of Belém and the Monument of the Discoveries in Lisbon, Portugal

On March 28, 2024March 28, 2024 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn PortugalLeave a comment

There are many neighborhoods in Lisbon that have sites of particular interest and Belém is certainly one of them. Lisbon is a port city and during the height of Portugal’s history when many explorers left Portugal from the ports of Belém to discover routes throughout the world. During that time, often referred to as the Age of Discoveries, ships would depart from the Tagus River and out to the Atlantic Ocean to either go south towards Africa or west to the Americas. Of the many sites to see in Belém, the Tower of Belém and the Monument of the Discoveries on the shore of the Tagus River are certainly among them.

The Tower of Belém was actually originally built on an island in the middle of the Tagus River, but after the earthquake of 1755, the river was diverted, and the tower now sits on the shoreline of the river. Depending on the tide, the tower is either surrounded by water or sand and during our visit the tide was out and people were able to walk around the base of the tower. It was built as a fortification and is the ceremonial gateway to Lisbon and is considered a symbol of Portugal’s prominence and power during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Not far from the tower is the Monument of the Discoveries (Padrão dos Descobrimentos), which is a popular spot for tourists to take photographs on the shore of the river. Built in 1939 and opening in 1940, the monument also celebrates the Age of Discovery when Portuguese ships and explorers left to trade with Asia. The monument depicts a ship with all of the various explorers looking forward towards the bow of the ship as it sails forward to explore the world.

Crowds Queuing for the Inside of the Tower

There are several places to visit when spending time in Belém and these two are literally the tip of the iceberg, but they are definitely worthwhile even if just to enjoy a nice walk along the river. We had just landed in Lisbon about three hours before taking a car from our hotel to visit Belém, which was a perfect way to start our time in Lisbon. There was a long queue to enter the tower, so we decided just to walk around the outside, although it was definitely impressive even just from the outside. We spent about four hours in Belém on our first day, but we did return for a second day later during our stay.

There is Always One More Place to See

On March 8, 2024March 8, 2024 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Travel Tips1 Comment

We originally posted this back in 2017, but the sentiments that we expressed remain as true today as they did seven years ago. No matter how much time you spend in a country, or even a city, there is always one more place to see or thing to do. Sure, it may not be the most important thing to see or do, but it probably something interesting or fun that someone else has done. After returning to the United States from spending six months in Europe, our least favorite question that people asked us when we got back was “did you go to…?”. We were working during the week, so we only had weekends to travel and didn’t have an unlimited budget, so obviously we couldn’t go everyplace. We also wanted to take advantage of our close proximity to other countries in Europe, so we couldn’t see every place in Germany, let alone Europe.

The same is true of many other trips. We spent two weeks in Spain and upon our return people inevitably asked whether we went to Madrid, Barcelona, or Portugal. We concentrated on southern Spain, so we did not make it to those places and we had a wonderful time and treasure every memory of our trip. We leave for Lisbon, Portugal in five days, so we’ll finally be able to “tick that box”. We also spent two weeks in Bolivia, but didn’t make it to the Uyuni Salt Flats due to the distance and costs from where we were. When we spent a week in Paris a few years ago, we decided to go to the Catacombs on the next to last day of our trip and it turned out that they had closed the Catacombs that day to do some repairs. It was just bad timing.

Eiffel_tower_color_cropped — Eiffel Tower in Autumn

IMGP9227 — Temple on Sun Island with Moon Island in the Distance on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia

DSC_0113_day2 — Geysir Erupting in Iceland

The point that we’re hoping to make is that it is okay that you don’t see everything. Don’t worry about the places you didn’t get to see, restaurants you didn’t get to try, or the attraction that happened to be closed during your visit. Our standard response to people these days is that those are just reasons to go back sometime in the future. Worrying about the things you missed is like complaining about the half empty glass. Keep traveling and your glass will only get fuller and fuller.

imgp1124 — The Erechthion in the Acropolis in Athens

Walking Tour of Sofia’s Old City Center in Bulgaria

On February 9, 2024February 9, 2024 By Living The Q Life Travel AdventuresIn Bulgaria4 Comments

One of the things that we did during our visit to Sofia in Bulgaria was to take a walking tour of the old city center, which included a traditional breakfast. We truly enjoy walking through the old city centers of historic towns and often do a self-guided tour, but in this particular case we chose to use a local guide to ensure that we learned as much of the history as we could. The history of Sofia stretches back thousands of years and like many Eastern European cities it has been transformed and conquered many times throughout the centuries. From the Trojans, Romans, Ottoman Empire, and Communist regime, it has seen a wide variety of cultural and architectural influences.

Inside of the Serdica Ancient Cultural and Communicative Complex

There are many fascinating sites all throughout the old city center, starting with the Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. In addition to the cathedral, the walking tour will also take you to the Saint Sofia Basilica, Banya Bashi Mosque, Church of St Petka of the Saddlers, and Saint Nedelya Church. You will also enjoy seeing many historical and cultural buildings such as the Ivan Vazov National Theater, Regional History Museum of Sofia, Sofia City Court, and the National Palace of Culture. As with any city center, you will also see many statues and monuments including several interesting ones such as the Tsar Samvel Monument, Monument to Tsar Liberator, and the Monument to Stefan Stambolov.

Inside of the Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

One of the most interesting sites along the tour is the archeological excavations at the Serdica Ancient Cultural and Communicative Complex. It will provide some insight into the period when the Romans controlled the city and used it as a stronghold in the region. Walking through the various zones, both inside and outside, at the complex is quite fascinating and was definitely one of the highlights of the walking tour. In the middle of the tour, we stopped for a quick breakfast that included Baklava, Banitsa, and Ayran, which is yogurt mixed with water and salt. The Banitsa is another layered pastry made with filo dough and cheese.

We were fortunate to have wonderful weather on the day that we did our walking tour, which certainly added to our enjoyment. We walked through several parks with beautiful greenery in the heart of the city. Another interesting thing were the cobblestone, brick roads that were painted yellow to resemble gold in an attempt to demonstrate the wealth of the city and its leaders. The entire tour took a little less than three hours and if you decide to do the tour on your own and go inside more of the museums than we did, you can make it a full-day activity. It is certainly a must-do when visiting Sofia in Bulgaria.