IF YOU'RE reading this from the USA, you might have just finished watched the fireworks at the end of one of the nation's biggest public holidays.
And if you're not in the USA, but have always wanted to experience the Fourth of July celebrations, travel agencies in Spain have been running 'Independence Day' holidays to New York City with guided tours and activities to enable you to enjoy the show – so no doubt you can find a decent deal for next year.
We've got one of these in Spain, too. And we do fireworks. (Photo: Pinterest)
Or if not, you could admire a Manhattan skyline from the beach instead – Benidorm (Alicante province) and Cullera (Valencia province) are both famous for their high-rise coastal scenery – and, at any time of the year, you can enjoy a New York-style shopping trip without having to cross the pond. Madrid has been officially named as the world's top city for retail therapy, and Barcelona is world number six, so you're unlikely to have any difficulty in parting with your cash in either.
And Spain even has a Statue of Liberty.
Two, in fact.
You can get a picture of both without having to lie on the ground on your back to get it all in the frame, and pose for a selfie next to them without looking like a Playmobil figurine at the foot or a full-sized human with nothing more exciting than a wall behind you.
Plus, travelling from anywhere in Spain to the beautiful, green, land-locked northern region of La Rioja is a lot cheaper than transatlantic flights (although direct airline routes from Madrid to the Big Apple started up a few years ago, with reasonably-priced and frequent connections, to cater for the ever-growing community of US-based tourists in the western Mediterranean).
Introducing La Rioja
Whilst it's certainly not Spain's only wine region – the country has literally hundreds, many you've never heard of even if you've lived here all your life – La Rioja is, arguably, the one that gets the most publicity internationally. Spanish wine suffers from lack of marketing, meaning shoppers overseas usually walk straight past it in the supermarket and grab the French, Italian, Australian or South African varieties instead.
La Rioja wines, which the region is famous for outside of Spain (photo: Animal Gourmet)
It doesn't help that Spanish wine is normally labelled outside of Spain as just 'Spanish wine'.
Unless it's a Rioja – in which case, everyone's heard of it, and everyone assumes it's the best, if not the only, wine to come out of the country at all.
La Rioja ought to be famous for its colourful autumn scenery, too. This picture (by La Ciru on Flickr) shows the rural outskirts of the village of Cenicero
It definitely is good. We're not going to argue with that. But it's just one of a massive list of good ones you can get in Spain. If it's a Rioja, it'll be delicious; if it's not a Rioja, though, it'll still be delicious. And as is always the case when somewhere is famous for something, there's more to it than the thing it's famous for. In the case of La Rioja, its dramatic scenery, for a start. Of course, this involves a lot of vineyards, but also mountains, rivers, and multi-coloured, orange, yellow, red and rust tinges across the horizon in autumn, bright emerald at other times of the year, ski stations – Valdezcaray being the main resort for hitting the slopes in winter – quaint villages, stately homes, majestic architecture, and rich history oozing out of every corner.
This single-province region is also quite famous for a little municipality called Ashtray.
It's called what?! The burning question
Found on the right bank of the Ebro river, home to just under 2,200 inhabitants, Cenicero's name does indeed translate as 'ashtray', and the remains of fires is thought to be the reason.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com