Call me corny, but there’s nothing more romantic than a sunset on the beach. No matter how often I’m lucky enough to experience such a combination of two of the most gorgeous sides of nature, I’m always awestruck before this colorful beauty anew.

This Picturesque Monday photo was taken in Caravelos, a little beach town close to Lisbon. And it has a little background story that makes it even more cheesy romantic: I was studying abroad in Portugal at the time and hadn’t seen Steffen in two months. He came to visit me for a weekend in late October, and I was worried weather would let us down as it had been raining all week before Steffen’s arrival. But as soon as he set foot on Portuguese ground late summer temperatures and sunshine were back. I had the best time showing him around my fabulous new hometown, and he was glad he could flee the rainy German fall for a few days…

Steffen’s biggest wish however, was to see the Atlantic Ocean, since he had never seen it before. So I took him to Carcavelos, my favorite beach in the Lisbon area. And call it luck or fate, we experienced the most perfect sunset I have seen in my life. The colors were so insanely intense and varied from deep red to soft purple that even the waitresses in the beach cafés stopped their work to take pictures of this natural spectacle.

And a perfect sunset becomes an amazingly perfect moment when you can share it with someone special.