Free Parking

Every day there is a market in at least one of the surrounding towns and villages – we have a list kindly provided by the site. We’ve been to 4 or 5 in Spain so far and every one has been a different experience. Some (and our favourites by far), are the simple food markets with the best of local produce on sale, which is usually very good and extremely good value for money.

Last Tuesday, having not been off site for a few days, we decided to have an outing to a town about 20kms away, a place called Orihuela. We knew Tuesday was market day so chose that day to visit.

As we approached the town we realised this was a big market with police directing the traffic.

Parking was on a large area of rough ground adjacent to the market. It was a free for all with cars waiting at the corners of rows waiting for other cars to leave. We thought we were next in line for a parking spot but as the previous occupants left a car reversed neatly from the other direction into the space we thought was ours. We drove around for quite a while trying to find another space. People were parked everywhere so the available roadways were very narrow.

At one stage we came face to face with a nun driving a Peugeot 105 – we both came to a halt and she made it very clear that we should be reversing out of her way. We disagreed and swapped a series of lively but non-abusive hand signals. By now we had spotted another potential space in the adjacent row so just sat still hoping she would reverse. Instead she just put her foot down and drove past us. How she managed to get past without hitting us I’ll never know – I can only assume it was divine intervention! We had a few similar close shaves and looking at the rest of the cars in the “car park” it was obvious that minor collisions are an every day part of Spanish life as every car had at least one significant scratch or dent. It was with some trepidation that we left our (almost spotless) car amongst this assortment of banger racers.

The market itself was a mixture of food, household items and clothes. As always the food was wonderful, the rest was similar to Wycombe on a Saturday but 5 or 6 times the size. Having bought our fresh produce we couldn’t wait to find the car (which thankfully was unscathed) and return to the peace and quiet of the campsite.

That will be our last visit to a large market for a while - the pine and palm forest at the end of our road is far more beautiful for walking around than any market stalls, be them big or small!