Built as the summer residence of the Portuguese Royal family almost 200 years ago, Pena Palace stands atop the pinnacle of the Sintra mountains with stunning views of the Atlantic Ocean far below.

Today a museum showpiece and World Heritage Site, it is one of the most spectacular castles in all Europe. I was here with your fellow TTPers completing another marvelous exploration of the wondrous land of Portugal last May.

Rebel and I are thinking of having a New Years’ Celebration here in Portugal to bring in 2025 with great food, great wine, and great fun. What do you think? Let me know on the Forum. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #231 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

One of the most dramatic sights along the Antrim Coast of Northern Ireland is the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. Originally built in the 1660s by salmon fishermen to get to their nets on the tiny islet of Carrick, it spans 70 feet across and 100 feet above the ocean waters surging below. It’s still used by the fishermen to this day. And while it’s been sturdily reinforced since it was a simple rope bridge, it’s still an invigorating experience to negotiate – especially in the wind and rain when I was there. Don’t pass it up if you’re ever in Northern Ireland. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #232 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

This is the Livraria Lello bookstore in Porto, Portugal where I am right now. Built in 1906, its Neo-Gothic/Art Noveau architecture and design make it the world’s most beautiful place to buy books. Not only was J.K. Rowling inspired to write her Harry Potter books here, but she based the dramatic staircase at Hogwarts on the work of art staircase at “The Lello” that you see above. Porto oozes with such beauty, charm, and entrancement. You deserve to experience it for yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #230 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

For 500 years, from Ca. 1000 to 1500 AD, the Byzantine Christians on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus labored with love to decorate the interior of their humble churches tucked away in hidden valleys of the Troodos Mountains.

There are a total of 10 such churches which are today a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The one you see here is the church of the Kykkos Monastery, with its extravagantly painted vaulted ceiling preserved immaculately for centuries.  Christianity remains very much alive in these mountains. Come here to be awed yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #235 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Galapagos Islands – November 2015. In the waters here, enormous schools of striped mullet swim together in one huge swirling ball by the tens of thousands.

One of the more astounding experiences a scuba diver can have is to swim far below one of these rotating living balls, then slowly rise straight up into it. The fish do not scatter, but merely create an empty column or vertical tunnel for you – so you float inside the ball with countless thousands of calm unperturbed fish circling around you and your dive buddy (who took this picture of me).

I’ve had the good fortune to go diving all over the world for the past sixty -plus years, and this experience is surely one of the most memorable of all. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #140 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Deep in the African rain forest where the Central African Republic, Cameroun, and the Congo come together, there is a swampy clearing of mineral and salt-rich mud where hundreds of elephants come to soak in the mud to absorb the minerals, turning their skin golden.  Other forest animals congregate here as well – buffalo, sitatunga and bongo antelope.  In the mountains nearby, there are an uncountable number of gorillas.  The clearing is called Dzanga Bai by the native Ba’aka Pygmies who live in small encampments in the forest.

We conducted our Gorillas and Pygmies expedition here in 2012.  It was an unforgettable experience, never to be repeated. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #278 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

A Kyrghiz eagle-hunter doesn’t hunt for eagles to eat.  He hunts with an eagle he has trained from infancy to hunt food for his family.

Female eagles adapt to training the best and are fierce huntresses.  Retrieved as a young chick from their mother’s nest when she’s out hunting, it takes one or two years to train them.  The eagle the hunter is holding is age six.  When they are too old to hunt at around age 20, they are released back into the wild, where they can live free for up to age 50.

That would be among the high rock outcroppings dotting the high grasslands of Kyrghizstan in Central Asia.  That’s where the hunter’s assistant (usually his son) climbs up with the eagle gripping his forearm high enough to launch.  Upon the hunter waves thee command on horseback, the hood is removed from the eagle’s head so he can see and is released.

Soaring high, the eagle searches for game like rabbits which are plentiful in the grasslands.  Upon spotting one, the eagle swoops down to snare it on the run with her amazingly powerful talons.  Allowing her to eat a bite or two as her reward, she’s re-hooded and the rabbit soon to be on the family dinner table.  If you want to see this for yourself, come with us to Kyrghizstan on our next exploration of Central Asia. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #228 photo ©Jack Wheeler)