Walking Tour of the Country Club Plaza during the W0RLD CUP

Are you coming to KC this summer for the big international football experience? Take a walking tour with Cowtown Tours! The Plaza is an outdoor museum of Romantic Spanish architecture and European art where people live and work every day amid its beauty. It was designed in 1922 as America's first suburban shopping district specifically to accommodate the nation's growing passion for cars. With wide lanes, free parking and broad sidewalks juxtaposed to large store front windows, the Plaza is a pedestrian's haven for shoppers. What I love about the Plaza is that it is an open-air, public art gallery that continuously adds to its collection, with fountains, sculptures and murals, bringing to the heart of our city the very best of the old world and the new. Come with me on this 2-hour walking tour to explore the treasures that are sprinkled throughout this extraordinary part of Kansas City.

This walking tour begins at the large fountain, on the northeast corner of Emmanuel Cleaver II Blvd (47th Street) and Mill Creek Parkway. Formerly known as the JC Nichols Fountain, this spot is the perfect starting point for the tour. From there, we'll see several Spanish towers, English fountains that are over 100 years old, an Italian bronze sculpture created in 1857, modern day sculptures of Winston Churchill and Ben Franklin, and one of the oldest pieces of art on the Plaza, the Mermaid Pool, an Italian beauty dating from 1680. I grew up in KC and going to the Plaza with my mom on Saturdays was a real treat. If your group gets thirsty, we'll stop at one of my favorite sidewalk cafes for a quick coffee or glass of wine. (Missouri dinking age: 21+)