It’s only January, but as many of you can testify, I’m sure, it’s been an unusually warm winter. For Madrid this seems to mean that one of my favorite Spanish cultural traditions has taken to the streets a bit earlier. In Spain, once it starts to get warm (usually late February, early March), the Spanish head out to the nearest town plaza. While no true local would eat in the over-priced (and, generally, over-rated) restaurants that line those plazas, they will buy a sandwich and a drink and plop themselves down in the sun. The “Plaza Mayor”, typically the most beautiful plaza in any given Spanish city, is the destination of many.
The Plaza Mayor in Madrid is usually overrun by tourists and the hawkers that follow them, and given this it might not seem like the friendliest place for a picnic. But in the spring, the Spanish make it theirs. It may seem basic, but I love the fact that the Spaniards have no aversion to sitting on the ground. WHY NOT enjoy the sun where it shines most—right in the middle of the plaza?
So while grey days are still around to remind me that it is, after all, only January… The enthusiasm of the Spaniards for those sunny afternoons in the plaza portends the return of spring.
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