In 1978, Bernie and I focused on Spain, in particular the northern part of that large country. But first, we spent a few delightful days in Madrid, where we visited novelist Elena Quiroga, whose work I had been researching and analyzing.

▲ Bernie photographed me with Elena Quiroga and her husband in their elegant apartment at the Royal Academy of History, built in 1737, where he was the director. They hosted Bernie and me for tea. It’s a very happy memory for me.

From there, we drove north to the coastal city of Santander, taking in lots of other historic places along the way and back: Cangas de Onís, Santillana del Mar, Segovia, Asturias, the Basque Country, and more. This page shows my favorite photos of those places.

▲ ▼  These shots show us in El Retiro, Madrid’s great urban park. During Spain’s Golden Age, the 16th and 17th centuries, this huge space had been the king’s private hunting grounds.

▼ We found a great place for lunch in El Retiro, too, alongside a recreational lake. I have special memories of that Coke I’m holding, because I ordered it forgetting that it would be an imported rarity, and therefore much more expensive than at home. It really did taste good though!

Segovia, a  2000-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site

▼ I made this dramatic image of a thunderstorm over Segovia, one of Spain’s legendary medieval cities.

▼ ▼ ▼ Once the storm passed, we lucked into fabulous weather for climbing the tight circular tower stairways in the historic fortress known as El Alcázar. The first photo captures its famous “ship-like” prow.

Segovia continued

▲ We were hungry by noon on our first full day, after spending the morning climbing circular stone towers at El Alcázar, so we did our usual thing. We stopped by a shop and bought the fixings for a picnic — ham, cheese, olives, bread, and wine — and found a park in town to enjoy it.

The cordial owners shown here already had packed up our purchases when I asked permission to take their picture. They happily agreed, but first insisted on unpacking our selections so we would remember those items, too, in the photo.

We liked these people so much that we went back the next day for another round of picnic food, which we then carried down the hill to a different park that we had heard about, one located below the steep slope that El Alcázar had been built upon.

▼ Bernie prepares to devour our second day’s purchases from the nice couple, in a park below the “prow” of the ship-shaped Alcazar. I made the photo and then quickly joined him before he could eat it all up.

▲ As we ate, a group of Spanish schoolgirls on a field trip arrived at the same park with their nuns. We engaged with them for an hour at least, and at the end Bernie made this priceless shot of them and me.

I’m in the middle—with only my face showing—between the girls in red and blue. It’s an unforgettable memory.

The ancient kingdom of Asturias

▼Cangas de Onís was the site of an ancient Roman settlement in what would later become the Spanish kingdom of Asturias. It was also the location of a famous battle between the Christians and the Moors.

This highly photogenic bridge over the Sella River dates from the 14th Century. The area is now part of Spain’s Picos de Europa National Park.

Santander, Spain’s great northern fishing port

▲ Bernie poses in a park in the largest city on Spain’s northern coast.

▼ On this particular day, we staked out a spot on the seawall for our lunch picnic. It was unique, fun, and memorable, with our legs hanging over the water, even though neither of us fell into the Cantabrian Sea.

▲ This group of female fishmongers at the market in Santander reacted warmly to my conversation and subsequent request for a photo. It felt like I made their day!