I’m here in Northern Spain’s Basque Country for a few days’ winter break, bar-hopping on my folding bike. After a few days in Bilbao doing little but riding around slowly and eating pintxos – this region’s equivalent of tapas – I’m now in Donostia / San Sebastián also riding around slowly and eating pintxos.
Yes, that’s ‘Donostia / San Sebastián’: like Derry / Londonderry, this is a two-name place described by the careful with an oblique stroke, mindful of separate identities (ie Basque / Spanish). I was here with the apolitical intent of eating, drinking and cycling, and ticked those boxes pretty thoroughly.
Donostia’s network of bike paths proved pretty good at whisking me often car-free, and almost always stress-free, between delightfully inexpensive snacks and glasses of wine.
A highlight is the 800m-long Morlans Tunnel, a recently abandoned city-centre railway tunnel repurposed as a very handy urban cycle route burrowing under some central mounts. After a few days grappling with the steep city hillsides of Bilbao, it was a pleasant surprise to find that Donostia’s bike network is essentially all flat.
Even heading out east from Donostia along the I-1.3 bike path to Altzibar, into what felt like the countryside, no significant climbing was involved.
The availability of welcoming little bars with their pintxos laid out temptingly in glass cabinets was just as good, though.
The only disappointment for me was not being able to ride out to the western edge of Donostia to see the seashore Eduardo Chillida sculpture Peine del Viento (‘Comb of the Wind’). The bike and pedestrian path there was closed because of, er, the high winds.