Onda

At midnight last night some kids passed down the olive grove track and were screaming and shouting. It went in for ages and I could here them getting closer and closer. I was worried we were going to be in for some confrontation but eventually they passed us all by and we could hear them wandering off and shouting really loud in the distance. Ellie heard them again at 4am but by that time I was well asleep.
The clocks went back last night so we gained an extra hour in bed and woke up at 7:30am which would have been 8;30 real time, and that extra hour was needed after the commotion of the night.
We both had a shower first thing and then breakfast and by 10am Wanda was packed up and ready to leave.
We only had a short journey to take to our next town but first we needed diesel and that turned out to be a right faff.
The first garage we went to was automated but didn’t have any English instructions which is unusual. To top that off they had 2 pumps at each pump station and they all said Gas A or Gas B. Not diesel or petrol or gazoile as in most garages. After we figured the pump out we realised we could only put in a maximum of €40 which filled us up to just under half. So we settled on that and hoped we put the right fuel in.
A mile down the road we came to a repsol garage and that was also automated but they do have English instructions. The strange thing was again it just said Gas A or Gas B. We put in €50 this time and luckily the pump readout said Diesel so we had guessed right and now we were almost full.
We reset the sat Nav and then drove the 3 miles to our next park up in the large town of Onda.
The park4night reviews had said that this place was quiet and tranquil but first impressions were anything but that but we decided to bite the bullet and stay anyway.
Onda is a huge town and a huge sporting town with it’s own football pitch, Olympic swimming pool and velodrome. A huge sports complex and a gymnasium. It also played host as the start of stage 7 in the 2019 La Vuelta and every single cycle path through the city is marked up with that fact.
Driving in, it looked very industrial with warehouses and retail parks all around but as we came in the main roads off of the motorway that was kind of expected. Onda is actually steeped in history going right back to the 10th century with a massive castle, huge church and hundreds of historical streets right in the old part in the town centre. It also has a festival running throughout October called the fear of Onda where there are fairs, street artists and performers, food stalls, arts and crafts and even bull running.
We parked up around 11:30am and straight away locked up and went for a walk down a a street market we had just passed. We thought there would be food on offer but really it was just toys and Chinese crap so after 20 minutes we headed back to Wanda for some lunch.
Around 2pm as I was sorting out cycling routes for later in the trip hundreds of fireworks started going off. They lasted for about 20 minutes but we couldn’t see them but they were the loudest fireworks we’d ever heard. Once the fireworks were over all the cars that were parked on the road left and the town suddenly became a lot quieter.
At 4pm we decided to go for a walk and see where the castle was. We knew it had been closed today but plan on going tomorrow so checking out the route seemed a good idea.
We headed off down past the sports park and then turned right up a huge high street where all the shops were closed for Sunday except cafes. Before long we came to the old part of the town and continued up a maze of winding streets and narrow allyways which was a complete contrast from where we had just come from. At the top of the Narrow allyways was the castle but it was completely fenced off by the police for the castle of fire display. This was obviously where the fireworks had come from.
We turned right following a walkway around the castle and then dropped down some steps back into the narrow allyways and then we noticed that every single door and window had a metal gate across it. The streets were super narrow now, with what seemed like coloured streamers hanging from the balconies and some of the streets now had metal barriers across them so you could close some streets off. Then Ellie noticed that the streamers were infact firecrackers and as we rounded a corner we came to the bull enclosure. These were the streets where the bull running takes place and it had happened a couple of days ago. It was fascinating to see the streets and the aftermath.
We then came to an old church with a highly decorated facade and even it’s doors were metal to protect them from the Bulls horns.
Slightly disoriented now we decided to head back for Wanda down the rat runs of little streets until we eventually passed through the town square and back into civilisation and major streets. The town is a funny mix of new and old.
It was now 5pm and we’d had a good walk and knew where to go tomorrow. Back at Wanda we had dinner and listened to a guy beating the biggest drum from a marching band at the local football match. It was annoyingly funny. He was very enthusiastic especially when his team scored a goal.
At 9:10pm the second lot of fireworks were released from the castle and this time we could see them. It was a spectacular display and once again the bangs were deafening as they ricocheted off the nearby mountains and bounced back and fourth. The whistles sounded very weird as they too bounced around the mountains gradually fading away. It lasted about 10 minutes in total and managed to set off every dog barking within a 20 mile radius and they carried on barking long into the night and the early hours. This place is far from tranquillity the reviews mentioned.Read more