We had planned to visit Spain in 2018, but delayed the trip after Karen’s parents passed away. We packed a lot into this trip — places Karen visited (with her mom, sister and nephew) in 2014, birding areas, diverse cities and unique islands. Here are the highlights.

Our first stop was in Granada. The Alhambra had been the main reason Karen’s mom wanted to do the trip in 2014, and Karen wanted to show it to Terry. We had a lovely room with terrace next to the Alhambra and spent several days exploring the Alhambra, Generalife and surroundings.

We got a rental car when we left Granada, and drove from there to Seville (the other city we visited from the 2014 trip). It turned out we were there during the Feria de Abril, Seville’s biggest annual celebration and a tradition since 1846. It was quite an experience!

It was fun to show Terry the Seville Cathedral, which is (among other things) Christopher Columbus’ final resting place, and the Giralda Tower, a remnant of the mosque that previously occupied the site.

We also enjoyed flamenco in Seville — both a performance at the Museo del Baile Flamenco and a lesson from Eva in the San Telmo neighborhood.

After Seville, we embarked on a series of outdoor adventures. The first was still in Andalucia Province. Donana National Park includes the wetlands where the Guadalquivir River runs out to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s the largest wetland remaining in Europe. Our guide Sergio Gonzalez Asian took us to some key areas in the park and to the towns of Sanlucar de Barrameda and El Rocio. El Rocio (population 1,400) seemed deserted and its sand streets were quiet. But on the Sunday before Pentecost, it’s the destination of about a million people — and their horses! — for the largest pilgrimage in Spain, held since 1653, to honor the Virgin of El Rocio, a 13th century statue in the church here.

We left Andalucia and headed north to Extremadura, the province where many Spanish conquistadores were born. It has a reputation of being hot, dry, barren and challenging. But we found it to be a beautiful place of grasslands, small villages and mountain canyons. We stayed in Torrejon del Rubio at the Casa Babel Monfrague. Its owner, Jose Arias, also guided us for two days.

Leaving the grasslands, we headed inland and uphill to the Gredos, one of Spain’s spectacular mountain ranges. Paradors are historic or unusual buildings operated as lodges by the Spanish government. We stayed in the Parador de Gredos, which was the original parador, converted from a royal hunting lodge by King Alfonso XIII in 1928. We enjoyed our stay here, as well as hiking and birding in the natural park.

Our next stop took us even higher into the mountains. Picos de Europa National Park contains some of the highest mountains in Spain. We stayed in the Parador here too, in the little village of Fuente De’. We were looking for the Wallcreeper, a tiny and enigmatic bird that lives in the scree slopes at the highest elevations of the park. Our guide, Teresa Farino, took us up the teleferico and along trails into the snow. No wallcreeper! The next day, we went back to the same area and got a quick but beautiful look at it!

A windy drive through a steep mountain canyon took us west and north to Basque Country. We spent two days in Bilbao. Once a gritty manufacturing city, it has been transformed into an international art mecca because of the Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 1997. It’s fantastic! The central parts of Bilbao are also very walkable, with enjoyable shops, plazas and cafes.

From Bilbao, we drove to the Basque region’s coast. San Sebastian Donostia is one of the major cities there, with beaches, casinos and other entertainment. Unfortunately, it was cold, windy and rainy most of the time we were there so we didn’t get the opportunity to really enjoy it. We did, though, have some amazing meals here and in nearby seaside towns.

We drove from the coast back to Madrid and turned in our rental car at the airport. From there, we got a cab into the central part of the city. We enjoyed two nights at the Madrid Palace Hotel (opened 1912), one of the grand old city hotels. Then we spent four nights staying with our nephew Tyler and his girlfriend Leah in their cool apartment in the Lavapies neighborhood. They spent two years here teaching English and having all kinds of great experiences. We really enjoyed hanging out with them and visiting their favorite parks, restaurants and bars (as well as touring museums while they were working). It turned out we were there at the time of the playoff match for European soccer — the UEFA Champions League finals — which featured the British teams Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool this year. So Madrid was full of rowdy Brits!

We left Madrid and flew to the Canary Islands, the last stop on the trip. Many people go there for the beaches, but we wanted to see the natural areas and the birds. We spent time on Fuerteventura (cold and VERY windy!), Lanzarote (with distinctive lava-bed vineyards), Tenerife (high mountain peaks and meadows in its center) and La Gomera (with remnant ancient laurel forest). The weather was not very cooperative and the birds were challenging. But it was interesting to see these unusual volcanic islands in the Atlantic.