P is for Plaza Mayor: A to Z Blogging Challenge

It's April and you know what that means: The AtoZ Blogging Challenge! For those who haven't played along before, the AtoZ Blogging Challenge asks bloggers to post every day during April (excepting Sundays), which works out to 26 days, one for each letter of the alphabet. In my opinion, it's the most fun if you choose a theme.

My theme this year is Places in my Heart, all about the places I've been and loved and that have mattered to me in a lasting sense.

For my regular readers, you'll see more than the usual once-a-week posts from me this month. I'm having a great time writing them, so I hope you enjoy reading them, too.

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P is for Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain is the most exciting city place I have ever seen. 

First the plaza itself is beautiful! Ornate and impressive both in scale and style. There's a definite "wow factor" just in stepping food into the plaza. 

It's such a center of activity as well. Music, dance, street artists, markets, shopping, and, of course, food! 

I ate my first tapas there. Drank my first Spanish wine there. Bought my first flower from a street vending gypsy there. Heard my first live flamenco music there. 

I've been to Madrid twice now. In 1992, as an undergraduate student and in 1999, as a teacher with a group of students from Nome, Alaska. Showing those kids from a tiny town in rural Alaska this gorgeous city attraction was a thrill. That's part of why I teach: the thrill that comes from seeing a kid "get" something for the first time. And even the most well-traveled student in my group had never seen anything like this plaza. 

If you're a people-watcher looking to get a sense of what madrileños are all about, this is your spot.