Sun sand and bicycles in San Sebastian

Today I bowed to the inevitable and went cycling .........and on a bike WITHOUT a motor!

San Sebastian town is built on the flat and everything is squeezed in before the steep mountains behind it start.

Off we went to the bike hire place and, equipped with a very natty basket and a 'turistico' map of the scenic tour, we pedaled away. .....for about 6 hours!! The bike paths were truly great for most of the way although some stupid pedestrians seem to think they could use them. I did some clanging of my bell and muttering under my breath and a few "Los sientos!" (Sorry!) when I almost sent someone flying.

It was very flat so not hard to get around, and I only fell off once when I miscalculated a kerb: no injuries were sustained I am pleased to report. 
We did have one hair raising moment when we had to pedal through a road tunnel alongside buses, motor bikes & cars. I'm not convinced we should have been there at all!

Despite that we both thought this was a lovely liveable city. If has lots of apartment blocks due to the limited space but no sky scrapers. Everywhere there are squares filled with playgrounds,  cafes or bars,  or well-kept floral gardens for people to relax in, as well as the beach of course. The DIY scenic bike  tour took us along the beaches and past the University which seemed very nice. The river which divides SS is the color of the ocean: a beautiful aqua blue. And the architecture  of the bridges which cross it varied according to the age of the bridge, with the older ones being very ornate.

Despite it being quite warm - somewhere in the low 30's - there is always a cool sea breeze, so it was perfect for cycling.

We took a break from cycling to go up the funicular railway to see the best views. And stopped for some sushi for lunch for a change. The funicular took us up a very steep slope and the views across to the beaches and the small islands that make up San Sebastian were stupendous.

The good news for me was that my sore leg was fine with cycling - it really is only a problem with walking.

Although it did require a giant G&T to restore me after we returned the bikes. This time they were even served in special blue Bombay Sapphires glasses - I was so impressed!
One of the quirkiest things Ewan noticed was the number of derelict bikes chained to the bike parking poles everywhere. There were lots of bikes that had flat tyres , missing tyres,  gears that had fallen into pieces etc. at every bike parking station. Some of them didn't seem that old.  Very odd!

Then we came across a Council public bike hire rack, just like the ones in Melbourne: the only problem was the lack of any  bikes at all! We saw two of these racks with the sum total of one bike available! Weird!

I was on a mission to conquer the  pinchos tradition. Apparently the old town is the place to do the bar crawl as its supposed to have the best pinchos anywhere. Our host Paula told us we needed to go to one bar and have one drink and one pinchos, and then move on to another bar.  At that rate we would be very drunk very quickly, although Ewan noticed that they don't quite fill the beer glasses to the top.

During our bike tour we had pedaled through the old town and the number of bars was certainly impressive ranging from tiny dark hole in the wall ones to larger more modern well-lit ones. However we decided it was quite a distance away so we'd peruse the ones closer and attempt to do more than one bar - our previous night's score!

I am pleased to report that we managed three! It's hard to judge which one to go to, as the ones with the most people standing outside are also the most crowded so it's difficult to get close enough to the bar to choose your pinchos from the ones on display.  Some of them are works of art as you can see in the photos, and we haven't had one that we disliked. Red wine and beer is cheap here but I have to admit that I had a Coke zero at one place as I wasn't sure I could cope with any more alcohol.

The last bar we went to specialised in baccala which is white fish. They had huge platters with it cooked about 6 different ways so you choose the ones you fancy and they heat up just a small portion for you - no bread involved. One had prawns and a tomato sauce and the other had a cheese sauce - both very tasty. All in all pinchos and tapas are a  great way to taste lots of different local delicacies including marinated anchovies, sardines, grilled octopus & calamari, pate, traditional sausages, grilled peppers and so much more.

It was great fun to watch the locals too. Clearly a lot of elderly Spaniards retire here, most of them women.  In the evenings they seem to gather in groups at particular bars,  all of them well-dressed and carefully groomed.  The one distinguishing feature is that they are tiny:  most of them are a head shorter than me!  The next generations seem considerably taller than their tiny grandmothers. And here everyone - young and old - are very tanned and brown in comparison to us.

Your pale pinchos reporter

Dianne