The rainbow over the wine barrels of Quinta da Pacheca must have been a very good sign that all will be well because we reached Aveiro without any dramas (thousands of roundabouts do not qualify as a drama…yes??) or nasty surprises with aunty GPS and her mid-life crisis. We would have liked to spend another day sniffing sweet wine barrel vapours, but we needed some vitamin sea as soon as possible. It was still cloudy but at least the rain had stopped. Yippee-Yay-Yay! In all the years visiting Portugal, this was the first time we experienced such a lot of rain in one go. Typical in the north, we were told. We wanted to take the more scenic route through the countryside towards the coast, but sight-seeing and raindrops are not best friends, so we used the highway with many tolls and high bridges…gulp! A few hours later we landed on the Praia da Granja beach (farm beach…BIG question mark) in Espinho, and only because we took a wrong turn. We used this “mistake” to stroll along the boardwalk (below) and enjoy a mini picknick . Oh happy day!
Aveiro is a more than one-thousand-year-old lovely city with canals, colourful Moliceiro boats (gondolas) and interesting bridges, and this is why it is mostly compared to Venice in Italy. Okay, we don’t know how busy Aveiro is during the holiday season, or if they too have thousands and thousands of tourists squish-squashing one another, but we found it pleasantly quiet.
Aveiro boasts many historical buildings in all sizes, architecture and colours, one more interesting than the other. The Cathedral with its impressive bell tower, the New Art Museum and the Municipal Building, and not forgetting the little tiny houses seemingly hugging each other, as if they’re keeping each other from falling over. There’s also a shopping centre next to one of the canals. No time to shop. We walked everywhere, and were so grateful that it was not a too hilly city! We did not take a boat trip, nor did we go on the little choo-choo. Per pedes it was, that is how we found a little shop selling South African goodies! Yoohoo! Biltong!
As almost everywhere in Portugal, typical blue azulejos tiles adorned a few buildings. The old train station, pictured below, is currently being renovated so should look even more amazing once finished.
Wonderful street art/grafitti donning the walls in and around the city (below)
Many hours later our sore feet reminded us that we needed to put them up, so we made our way to the Praca do Peixo (Fish Market Square). We were also famished! The Square is the nightlife hub of Aveiro with its many restaurants and bars. During the day visitors are also spoilt for choice at the many eateries where one can try traditional Portuguese food, be it meat, fish or otherwise, or eating standing, sitting or on the go. We felt for something fishy, but without having to take our shoes off hee-hee, so one of us ordered eel stew ew eww…uhm…sorry…yumm-yummy…🤥 washed down with a cold beer, glug-glug, and the other, the not so adventurous one, grilled sea brass. Hmmm…lekker! 😋
Okay, there was just one teenie-weenie little drama when we arrived at our hotel. The elevator was out of order so we had to use the stairs. We were on the top floor! Oh, okay! Thanks to their porter service we did not have to lug all our bags up ourselves, that’s why it’s only an itsy-bitsy drama 🤪😘
Angels Travelling 