Europe - Spain's Euskadi - Donostia-San Sebastián

The charming Basque city with its superb beach and bay

(photos of December 2004)

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La Concha Bay and Beach

The city of Donostia-San Sebastián (described at Wikipedia, map) is uniquely and beautifully situated along its circular bay and round beach, both called La Concha because of their shell shape.

The next scrollable panorama shows the complete bay and beach of La Concha. It is duplicated in smaller scale in the following series of five panoramas that compare a variety of weather and lighting conditions. These were all taken from the same hotel balcony here and exhibit the ebb of the tide (the vertical breaks in the surf result from joining together pictures taken several seconds apart).

The city and coast

Donostia-San Sebastián has an active fishing harbor and a marvellous old town, both at the right end of the bay in the above panoramas.

A sculpture by Jorge Oteiza marks the exit of Concha Bay to the Bay of Biscay, itself an extension of the Atlantic Ocean and famous for its vicious winter storms.