Pinxtos And Pedestrians: Carfree In The Basque Country

Santander, Bilbao, San Sebastian – three fine cities on the coast of Northern Spain. Two of which are in the Basque Country (Santander is in Cantabria). But whatever it's called, it's a great place for a carfree holiday. The food is great (especially those pinxtos, the Basque variant of tapas), there’s lots to see and do and the people are friendly, even if the Basque language is a bit of a challenge (some Spanish will get you by). Best of all, the three cities have gone a long way to being pedestrian and bike friendly, with carfree streets and cheap and efficient public transport. Not only is it easy to get around the cities on foot or using public transport, the region is very accessible, with lots of opportunities for side trips by bus and train – incredibly, you can go to the beaches near Bilbao using the Metro. Overall, here’s what we did and how we did it: taxi and train to Portsmouth, taxi to ferry port; overnight ferry to Santander, walk from ferry port to city centre accommodation, stay in Santander; train from Santander to Bilbao, walk to accommodation, stay in Bilbao; tram to station, train to San Sebastian (Donostia in Basque), taxi to accommodation, stay in San Sebastian; taxi to station, train to Hendaye (France) TGV to Paris, taxi to hotel, stay in Paris; metro to Gare du Nord, Eurostar to London, train and taxi home. Trains and boats were nearly all punctual (except for the 20 minute delays on the high speed trains - both TGV and Eurostar). But best of all, no jams, no hassles with parking, no motorway tolls, no getting lost, no driving on the “wrong” side of the road, no breakdowns, and plenty of time to enjoy the views rather than stare at the tarmac. More to come on the carfree delights of The Basque Country....and Cantabria.

Outside the Box in Paris

Last week we took a spring break on Eurostar to Paris – for £55 return why wouldn’t you? Travelling by rail at 186mph has become so commonplace that the train crew don’t even bother to announce that the train is going at maximum speed any more, let alone telling you that you’re in the tunnel and will be under the English Channel (La Manche, if you prefer), for 20 minutes.  When you get to Paris, getting around is cheap and easy: the city is compact, there are plenty of buses, you are never more than 500 metres from a metro station, you can jump on a Velib hire bike if you want to (and wearing a bike helmet is rare). And Paris is the spiritual home of the flaneur.  Which doesn’t really translate, but essentially means a person who goes for an aimless wander along the boulevards: although, when doing so, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the traffic – there are very few trucks, but where cars are allowed, they move at breakneck speed, so it’s best not to get too existential.  Paris is geographically closer to London than many big British cities, but despite the occasional McDonalds and Starbucks, Paris is a whole lot still less homogenised than London – there are thousands of individual cafes, restaurants and shops, and a vitality to the streetscape that has been lost in many parts of the UK, including London.

Macca In A Muckle: Paul McCartney Gets Stuck On The Eurostar

Sir Paul McCartney was among passengers travelling between Paris and London who got stuck when the Eurostar broke down this week, as heavy snow in France caused problems with the overhead cables.  His six hour delay was big news, splashed across most of the newspapers.

Behavioural economists would note that this was a pretty vivid and salient episode, likely to create a lasting impression of Eurostar. This could then feed an availability heuristic: Eurostar is prone to breakdowns (it isn’t the first time this has happened). Such a heuristic could trump the actual data about the reliability of Eurostar, but it’s the heuristic that drives decisions, not the data. When similar things happen on the roads, and people get stuck in their car for hours, the same thing doesn’t happen: people don’t decide not to drive again.

Less vivid and less salient, hence no heuristic to be available for future decisions. As well as the behavioural economics, there’s a more cheering message from this episode: not just that Macca seems to have been pretty equable throughout (he understands that “these things can happen”), but that he chooses to use public transport, and not a private jet. When Macca lived in Hove during his marriage to Heather Mills, he was often spotted taking the train to London. Whatever you think of the music, Macca’s willingness to mix it on public transport has to be a plus.

Should You Stay Or Should You Go?

Today’s independent report into the pre-Christmas Eurostar debacle states that the company had “no plan” to deal with the delays and cancellations caused when their trains encountered the wrong kind of snow. Presumably this isn’t news to the 100,000 passengers caught up in the chaos and who were unable to switch to fully booked flights and ferries. The 100,000 nearly included yours truly.

We have made it policy never to holiday at peak times unless we have to - why go at the same time as everyone else? This year, we made an exception, and went off for the New Year, by train, to Bardolino on Lake Garda. It was a lot of fun, and the trains were part of the experience. Returning home, we started overnight near Montreux, leaving by train on Sunday morning and arriving home the same evening: it didn't seem possible that we had started in Switzerland, crossed a large chunk of France including the Jura, transited Paris, barrelled under the Channel, and then looped back to Sussex via St. Pancras without leaving the ground. Such is the wonder of high speed rail when it works properly.  

But wondering whether Eurostar would fix their trains on time for our outbound journey made things a bit angsty before we left. Fortunately, the trains got fixed (just) and we missed the chaos. But despite having a fun time, we'd think twice about a repeat performance. As Simon Jenkins said in his Guardian piece on hypermobility, “Don’t blame the system for winter travel chaos. Stay put.”