Beach of La Concha

This guide to the Beach of La Concha in San Sebastian opens in 1845, when doctors in Madrid, unable to cure young queen Isabel the Second's skin ailment, sent her to bathe in the cold Atlantic at a fishing town shaped like a near-perfect curve of bay. Where she waded in, the Spanish court followed, turning a quiet village into the country's fashionable address almost overnight. You'll hear how the bay had already earned its name, La Concha, long before any queen arrived. Look for the low iron railing lining the sand, still the spot where locals lean to watch the tide.