By crossing the city bridges over the Onyar River, you can see the pastel-coloured houses that line the bank on the site of the old city walls. Pont de Ferro, an iron bridge built by Gustave Eiffel, offers beautiful views of the city's trademark facade, the quintessential Girona experience.

Standing on top of Corcovado Mountain, 710 meters above sea level, Christ the Redeemer overlooks the metropolis below with outstretched arms. The statue named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007, embraces the whole city, welcomes and protects, yet appears to keep a watchful eye on locals and visitors. Venture up through the Tijuca Rain Forest to the top of the mountain for a closer look and be rewarded by fabulous views of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, Copacabana, Ipanema, the Maracanã Stadium, and the Serra do Órgãos mountain range. You can hike up to the statue or comfortably reach it by way of a twenty-minute tram/car ride.

The Aventureiro Sustainable Development Reserve is located southwest of Ilha Grande, Rio de Janeiro’s largest island, in Angra Dos Reis Bay. The reserve, established in 1990, features extraordinary unspoiled nature, and many animal species and is home to the ancient caiçaras fishing community.

Valencia welcomes spring with its most colourful and famous festival. Gigantic papier mache monuments, known as fallas, with effigies usually representing celebrities or politicians in a satirical way, are set up on streets and squares throughout the city and burnt to a cinder in spectacular bonfires on the last day of the celebration. The Flower Offering to the Virgen de los Desamparados, when thousands of falleras and falleros in traditional costumes parade through the city, is also a sight to behold.