Portugal is amazing - I've solo traveled there too, and had a great experience.

It's a shame that people only seemed to be visiting that library to take photos. But, I'm glad that you were able to appreciate it, regardless!

As for your question at the end - I thought this was a great article, with nice photos. So I really can't think why it would have been rejected. My only advice would be to try to find stories that are very similar to yours in regard to topic and style and submit to whichever publications those stories are featured in? Maybe you're already doing that, but I thought I'd mention it, just in case.