San Sebastian is the gastronomic capital of Spain. Named Donostia in Basque, the cuisine of champions here is the 'pintxo'. Similar to tapas, the main difference is that instead of getting one free with your drink as you do in southern Spain, here you pay for your pinxto...but they are worth it. Each bar in San Sebastian is bursting with rows of carefully laid out masterpieces, the most difficult decision was selecting which one to eat! The literal translation of pinxto is 'spike' as the stacked ingredients are usually held together with a skewer to the underlying piece of bread. Sophisticated and elaborate, each individual pinxto is a work of art. Our Saturday night in San Sebastian, naturally, involved a 'pinxto crawl' and of course every bite was accompanied by a glass of rioja or small cold beer. Good times.

We were fortunate to coincide our time in the city with the culmination of the 'Grand Semana' and were treated to an impressive fireworks display over the main city beach on our first night . San Sebastian boasts one of the best city beaches in Europe. We found it a quite unusual scenario to sunbathe and swim right next to major historical buildings and churches. Of course, with its chic reputation and abundance of Michelin-star restaurants, it frequently attracts a certain type of people, climbing down from their yachts...

After changing out of our boat shoes, we made the hike up Monte Urgull, the mountain separating the two main city beaches. Topped by low castle walls, there is a statue of Christ on its summit which provides a grand vista across the bay, and a small interesting museum which focused on the city's history. Not content with this hike in the midday sun, we set out to conquer Monte Igueldo at the other side of La Concha bay. Here we took in some more great views of San Sebastian before catching the funicular down.

On our final morning in the city we visited the San Telmo Museum, located in a magnificent 16th century building, to learn about the local Basque culture.

Onward bus to Bilbao, 90mins.