People kept telling me that the sunsets in Santorini, Greece would be spectacular so my anticipation was high!  While walking around the beautiful streets of Oia, I could have sworn that I had been magically transported to a Detroit deteriorated city like area!  This was not far at all from the place pictured in the top photo of this post.

I was looking for a place away from the crowds to get the best view of the sunset possible and NO ONE seemed to be in this area.  I thought everything was OK as there was nobody around.  I thought I had found a "special secret" place to see this fabulous natural wonder...until I heard the dogs barking.  This guy convinced me to go find the tourists real quick! 

Sunsets are always pretty in my opinion, but I just didn't see the big to do about the one I saw on this greek isle.  Perhaps I'm fortunate that I live in Florida on the water where almost every night I see lovely, colorful sunsets that are usually accented with clouds.  The clouds and a little more color was what I did not see while here. 

Santorini Sunsets:



Many people were waiting to watch the "epic Santorini sunset".  There are bars and restaurants in the area simply for people to eat, drink and watch the sunset.  It was a festive atmosphere and a fun experience overall.

Florida sunset:

Thank you so much for stopping by.  As always, I love to hear your questions and comments.  Have a great weekend! 

~ Michelle

In July 2014, while in Austria I visited the gorge called Liechtensteinklamm.   This gorge is in a small town about 45 minutes drive from Salzburg called St. Johann.  It was by far one of the best experiences I've had traveling in a long time - and definitely while in Austria so far.  Somehow the locals manage to make Liechtensteinklamm sound like one syllable while I can't say it period!  

The only bad parts was I did not heed the advice given to me by everyone where I was staying telling me it was too far to walk.  They said it was only six are seven kilometers. This did not sound like a long ways to me, however, I live in Florida where all of the land is flat while here in Austria there are many hills.   Once you get to the gorge there are even more hills and stairways to climb which is quite a workout.  It is not a difficult walk as the paths are well kept, but after walking 6-7 kilometers to get there, it did become a little more difficult for me.  

I would have taken a taxi home, but I didn't have a cell phone with me...so I just decided to walk - AGAIN.  I'm just estimating, but if I were to bet, I would say I walked close to 20 kilometers that day which all seemed uphill.    I was really tired afterward and my legs and feet hurt really badly afterword.   It also did not help that I wore the wrong shoes, as you can see from one of my photos, for much of the trip.  I also brought a rather large bag instead of a backpack which would have been a lot more practical and made the trip much easier!  

The pathways are well kept and is a nice walk if you're wearing the right footwear and haven't already walked several kilometers/miles ;).  Thankfully my hotel had a nice pool and hot tub to sooth my aching feet and legs!  The cost is only 4.50 euros and you need approximately two hours at the gorge according to most people.  Overall, I think the gorge is a very well priced and a fun experience. 


 












My ticket stub and a house I saw in the way back:

AND finally the pool and hot tub...awww :)

Thank you so much for stopping by.  I will leave you with a very short video of one of the waterfalls in the gorge.  As always, I love to hear your comments and answer any questions.  Have a great week.

~ Michelle

  I think everyone likes or actually loves receiving awards.  I recently received my first award as a travel blog writer.  It was very much an honor and certainly helped motivate me to keep blogging!   I am extremely grateful and want to say a big thank you to Anda who blogs at:  Travel Notes and Beyond  for nominating me for the Liebster Award! I’m truly honored to receive it. 

      What is a Liebster Award, you may ask? Well, I didn’t know either. From all I’ve been able to gather, the Liebster Blog Award originated in Germany and is given to bloggers by bloggers. Bestowing the Liebster is the way of letting a blogger know that he/she is liked, preferred, or favorited above others. In fact the meaning of the German word itself (Liebster) seems to indicate that.

      The original rules were very  simple:  thank and link back to the blogger who gave you the award, place the Liebster Blog image on your blog and nominate 3-5 other bloggers with less than 3,000 readers. But like most things today, rules became more complicated. While the three original rules still apply, now you also have to answer the questions the tagger has asked,  nominate 5 – 7 more blogs who have less than 200 followers and let them know they’ve been nominated, and create a new list of 7 questions for your own nominees. The rules vary slightly from blog to blog and from year to year. 

Here are my responses to Anda's questions:

My Nominees for the Liebster Award (in no particular order):

Backroad Planet

BlondBrunette travel

Confessions of a Reforming Geek

2.What do you find is the biggest challenge for you as a blogger?

 To my nominees:  Congratulations on your Liebster award.  Good luck with your blogs and please leave a link in the comments section below so I can view your answers.