Igreja de São Roque (Church of Saint Roch) in Lisbon, Portugal

On April 9, 2024April 11, 2024 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn PortugalLeave a comment

There are several wonderful churches and basilicas in Lisbon, but after seeing some images online, we made going to Igreja de São Roque something that was high on our list. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful churches in Lisbon and certainly one of the most fascinating churches that we have seen. The details within the church are quite stunning and extremely ornate. During our visit in person, the details were overwhelming, and we’ve absorbed more looking at our photographs after returning home.

The church was originally built in the 16th century and was one of the few structures in Lisbon to survive mostly intact after the earthquake of 1755. At the time that it was built, it was likely one of the most expensive churches that had been built at that time, which is certainly understandable when you see all of the features within it. It was built in the Baroque style, but the outside of the church is very simple in comparison to the beauty of all of the amazing features of the interior.

The painted ceiling is the first thing that you notice as you enter the church and it is certainly interesting as it is a wooden ceiling, which has been painted with scenes from the bible. The church’s organ is also quite beautiful, but the many chapels that surround the main chamber are the real stars of the visit. We had seen conflicting information regarding the hours that the church was open. Some sites stated it was only open on Monday afternoon, but we’re pretty sure that it is open every day, although we ended up visiting on a Monday.

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

On March 28, 2024March 28, 2024 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn 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 Isobar ExpeditionsIn 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.

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

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.