In late summer 1926 Kazantzakis spent a month travelling in Spain as a newspaper correspondent for Eleftheros Logos [Free Speech], and interviewed General Primo de Rivera, the Spanish dictator. 

On his next journey, from October 1932 to December 1933, he spent an extended period in Madrid studying Spanish literature. Following his father’s death he toured the country by train. Key moments on this journey were his visit to Toledo and encounter with the art of El Greco.