Sometimes, there is a proper cycling path too! But don't rejoy too fast: it's often shared with pedestrians, and in any case interrupts after at most a few km. Such as this half-finished round-about leading nowhere.

If the gambit is "you'll get cycling lanes if we got more roads to put on the side of", that's not a very good proposition...

#CyclingInfrastructure

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Let's talk about cycling infrastructure in Northern Spain. Most of the time, it's inexistant, simply a sign warning about the possibility of cyclists, with a fine print to overtake with a 1.5m distance written in microscopic font that no driver will ever be able to read. Which wasn't too bad as traffic is low outside of urban areas: after all, despite being clearly a car-first country, Spain isn't densely populated. #CyclingInfrastructure

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As we're in the Basque Country, let's talk about local traditions. One of them is the Basque pelota, a sport played on a dedicated court named fronton. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_pelota

We notice some differences across the border. In France we mostly see an outdoor wall with a characteristic red color and rouded shape. In Spain the front wall is often squared and there is a perpendicular side wall, generally indoors but sometimes in more curious places such as directly using the wall of a church!

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One nice thing: in Spain there is always a road sign mentioning a railway whenever the road crosses it, like for rivers in many countries.

This narrow-gauge may not look like much, with this second track now abandoned. But unlike France's pristine stations, there are actually trains running here hourly from 6am to 11pm, with modern interior operated by Euskotren! The way might be slow, but you can actually reach the cities of Bilbao or San Sebastian from any village on this railway. 💯

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Further on, we regularly cross groups of sport cyclists. Landscape is indeed beautiful and hilly. However, almost no women, despite women cycling growing in popularity in other countries. Could it have to be with the (un)safety of the roads?

Judge for yourself: Spain is a rare country where a mandatory minimum speed is reminded for overtaking lanes, and where a maximum speed is recommended on turns (rather than setting a strict limit). Rarely any shoulder space on the side of the road.

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These new rails need some love! One of the largest scale invasions of japanese knotweed I've seen since I'm paying attention. 🌿🌿🌿

Also, a park near the railway track was already invaded in half.

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Cycling across the San Sebastian urban area was a bit mixed. On the one hand there was somehow a continuous cycling path all the way for about 20 km. On the other hand its quality was really variable, lots of the time a narrow bidirectional path jumping from sidewalk to sidewalk, from red light to red light, circling around highways. There is definitely room for improvement!

#cycling #infrastructure #SanSebastian #Donostia

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Down the hill, we suddenly go from wild forest to the industrial harbour of Pasaia in the suburbs of San Sebastian. A great way to see the full circle of the automobile industry: new cars in the background (brought here by countless trains), metal scrape in the foreground.

It also shows the scale of vehicle production: a single row of tramway cars dwarfed by a multi-layered storage for individual cars.

8/

Cycling infrastructure on the other side of the border in the sister city of Irun wasn't as nice, although improving in some parts. Shout out to this cyclist with the "less cars more bicycles" sticker.

We passed by a large freight terminal: although there are no long-distance #CrossBorderRail trains, we indeed met a lot of freight trains on our way from Dax.

The way along the coast led to wonderful viewpoints, although it was steep!

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