Game of Thrones anyone? I was really tempted to get creative with an ice breathing dragon. This place captured my curiosity and imagination from the very first time I saw some shots from here and of course a trip was planned. Both places are part of Unesco World Heritage and are well worth the visit. I have stopped being active here but the news about the Smug Mug acquisition have given me hope that good things are coming!

Tags:   sintra portugal europe travel tourism vacation spring summer castles unesco world medieval moorish castel pena palace heritage old ancient historic

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This bucolic little gem sits right on the side of the road. Once the sun set behind the ridge, the fall colors came to life. I am sure the beautiful colors of the sky also helped with that.

Tags:   dairy farm cornwall connecticut new england fall autumn foliage cows sunset rural barn red pasture

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I was holding on to this shot partly because I had some unpleasant memories associated with this. It was rainy and gloomy the entire day and right before sunset the clouds started to clear up. The place was swamped with tourists who had been cooped up indoors and now were all running around trying to get their mandatory selfie in front of the lake before the last light got snuffed away. I managed to straddle a trunk of a tree in the attempt to avoid anyone accidentally on purpose pitching a tent right in front of me. Looking behind me once in a while, I was trying to spot my son who in never failing fashion managed to fall into the freezing glacial water and got completely drenched. This is when I first spotted Her. A woman tourist was waving her hands at me in a shooing way. At first I didn't think anything of it given the distance that separated us. I thought she can't be possibly shooing me. A few minutes later it all became clear that I was indeed her intended target. She made the effort to find me and angrily told me to move out of her way because I was in the way of her cell phone selfie. I pointed to all the other tourists and told her she doesn't own the place. She continued to verbally assault me and kept demanding for me to move. To make the long story short, things got quite heated. I had to really stop and try to picture myself spending the night in a Canadian jail. I don't know if it was that image or the image of my husband and son coming to my bail hearing that kinda got me to cool off. So now that it has been a few months, I felt I could revisit the scene without cringing too much.

Tags:   moraine lake glacial mountains alberta canada reflections sunset summer vacation tourism travel banff national park

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I found that Sao Miguel rivals Hawaii in its lush greens and beautiful waterfalls. This place is called Parque Natural da Ribeira dos Caldeiros. In July and August the island becomes covered in Hydrengeas blooms. Even in March I was able to find these azaleas to include in my composition.

Tags:   portugal travel europe sao miguel waterfall green sun star azaleas blooms spring park tourism

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The charming island of Sao Miguel is dotted with volcanic craters and spectacular hikes such as this!

Tags:   Sao miguel portugal europe sunset hike hikers lifestyle tourism travel Boca do Inferno Azores volcano craters

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