“The best view in the world”

The first stage of my Camino del Norte in September 2025 was from Irun in Spain, just across the border from France, to San Sebastian, a major city in the Basque region in northern Spain. I had to abort my Camino at the fourth stage, but that’s another story for another time. This post concerns San Sebastian, or Donostia in the Basque language.

I have to say, having already heard good things about the place, that I was a bit disappointed when I arrived in San Sebastian, having traversed many kilometres of spectacular coastline, up and down (literally) breathtaking hills, through and across the pretty fishing port of Lezo on a passenger ferry boat. Then, suddenly, I found myself in a busy city. Crowds, cars, noise… why don’t I just stay away from cities? I thought. But I was tired after a killer walk – the other story, another time. For the following day I had already programmed a day of rest and sightseeing with my wife, who was supporting my Camino, and it was then that we would appreciate why our friends had spoken so well about San Sebastian.

We wandered a bit around the old town, then came to a picturesque old port before setting out to climb Mount Urgull – a hill on a promontory that splits the San Sebastian coastline into two. This is where it started to get spectacular.

The focal point of the Bahía de La Concha (the Concha Bay) is the Isla de Santa Clara.

Back to just a couple of metres above mean sea level in the heart of the old town, we stopped for lunch at a place that’s a typical, I would say universal feature of any Spanish town: the plaza, to be precise, the Plaza de la Constitución.

We ordered some pintxos, I had a Negroni cocktail (a vice that I picked up at the lovely town of Montepulciano in Tuscany, Italy – that’s yet another story) and sat back to relax and watch the world go by. In mentioning that this is typically Spanish, maybe I wasn’t being completely accurate. In a typically Spanish setting there would be mostly locals, children playing around and chasing each other and, the most important, incessant loud chatter everywhere in the plaza. Here it was mostly tourists. A group of a dozen or so in the middle of the plaza were taking group photos. Couples walking hand in hand, people just taking it easy and enjoying life. This was where, also aided by the Negroni, I had a great insight.

Now that’s how the world should be. It’s how humans should conduct themselves. Forget all nationalisms, conflict, pride, lust for glory, idolatry… sit down, relax and have whatever you prefer for lunch. Why should so many prefer to stay shooting each other instead? Silly, idiotic species that we are. Okay, maybe others have already had this great insight before me, and yet here we are still living in a cruel, cruel world. Because some people, for instance, insist that they’re God’s chosen people. Oh well.

In the afternoon we drove to the other side of the Concha, the high promontory behind the Isla Santa Clara in the picture up above. Further surprises were awaiting us up here at the Monte Igueldo.

More than a century ago, in 1912, Queen Maria Cristina inaugurated an amusement park here, and in September 2025 this was still operating at full swing.

Indeed, I think the claim that Monte Igueldo offers “the best view in the world” is not such a great exaggeration! My humble effort below gives but a vague idea. You see, on the other side there’s another dramatic view of the western coastline, but the sun was, sort of, in the way while we were up there.