Basqueing in the sun

Ah, San Sebastian in the heart of Basque country in Spain right near the French border.  Basque country is famous for it's Pinxtos which is similar to Tapas, it gets its name from the skewer which usually holds it together.   Typically it is served on stands at the bar, and you help yourself to it as well as the Basque cider which is flat and slightly salty compared to your typical cider served in the UK or Australia.

Gourmet Pinxtos served at a bar in the old quarter

Ok now onto the bikes, I did notice that San Sebastian had quite a lot of bicycle use, the city itself is reasonably small and it has a bus system as well as some rail.  However many locals rely on bikes to shop, drop their kids off at school as well as relax.

Most of the bike racks were well used, along the major roads there was segregated bike paths as well as separate red lights for the bike lanes which were well used.  The city itself is located between many mountains, however the main parts of the city are relatively flat which lends it well to cycling.

However there were some pretty abysmal intersections like the one below, the bike path stops and diverts itself onto the pedestrian pavement then swerves back for no real reason.  This wouldn't look out of place in the UK or in Australia.

Not surprisingly the city has its own bike share system called D Bizi which stands for Donostia bicycle in Basque.  The bikes themselves dock on their sides to bollards with what appeared to be contactless terminals.  I didn't get a chance to try it out but I did have a few observations.

The bikes themselves were pretty much standard, relatively light duty compared to Barclays bikes.  They were similar to the Bicing system in Barcelona due to their more standardised parts, however these were even more standard to the point where they were almost like off the shelf bikes.  Perhaps being a reasonably small town means they are less likely to get vandalised?  Barclays bikes are built like tanks, and rightfully so.

The bikes themselves had Nexus internal hub gears, they appeared to be the 7 speed version of the hubs  which is unusually nice for a bike share.  The luggage capacity was quite good as it featured a large plastic basket on the rear rack, otherwise they were a pretty standard steel framed step-thru frame with V-brakes.

A typical bike spotted on the streets of San Sebastian

After gorging myself on Pinxtos for several days I needed some salad and probably some more bike riding.  On that note, I'll finish with some more pics of food.  Thanks for reading.

Tortilla on a turntable, yes!