Aveiro, Portugal

I dropped off the car in Lisbon after 10 days. It was well worth it because we saw so much more outside of cities than we normally do when traveling. Tolls are high and so are gas prices, but we had a fuel efficient Ford Focus and the daily rental was cheap. For $35/day, that's a great bargain and it's about what we paid for two first class rail passes on average for 2 people on Eurail last year. Driving in cities here can be stressful though. The streets are narrow and you sometimes can barely turn a corner since peple park just about anywhere. I don't regret it, but it felt good to leave it behind for awhile.

We took a metro to Lisbon's Oriente station and grabbed an Alfa Pendula, their high speed train, up to Aveiro (ah VAY roo). It's the last stop before Porto. I'd heard good things about Aveiro, and it's a place many expats are settling in. It used to be a place where seaweed and sea salt was harvested. Canals were built in the 18th century for this, but they silted up later. Now, everything is cleaned up and it's like a little Venice, with brick-lined canals sporting long tourist boats zipping about.

We got a super cheap room above a bakery near the train station ($40?). It was newly remodeled, but the private bathroom was down the hall. We used our room key to get in and out of it. We had no complaints about it, as it was very convenient when arriving after dark. Besides canals, Aveiro is also known for their little pastries, the Ovos Moles. Centuries ago, local nuns used egg whites to clean and starch their habits. Not wanting the egg yolks to go to waste, they added lots of sugar to them and put them in little crimped layers of dough, and voila, ovos moles. We tried one at the bakery below and they're pretty good.

I must say, France has nothing on Portugal when it comes to pastry shops. Pastelarias seem to be on every corner in Portugal. Everywhere you go, you'll see locals of all ages sitting in cafes, eating a pastry and making an espresso (cafe, or bica) last forever. Oddly, they seem to be in pretty good shape. That's probably because walking culture is alive and well here. Walking to and from a bus/metro/tram station adds up. We're averaging 5 miles a day so far, and that's even with the car rental.

We allotted one night only here since we're on a bit of a tight schedule. Too bad, because it really is a lovely city. You sometimes get an immediate like or dislike for a town. Portimao, a tourist beach city in the Algarve is one of those cities I immediately hated. It's full of soulless highrises for short term rentals to families on a beach vacation. The beaches were amazing, but there was no old town and it was an urban hellscape. Aveiro on the other hand has a wide boulevard leading down to the center from the train station. It's lined with lots of locally owned shops selling all the stuff we rarely sell in individual shops in the US: baby shoe stores, hat stores, lots and lots of clothing stores, etc. There are small restaurants and bars everywhere in the center. And the canals and small bridges add a romantic touch.

As we approached the center, we'd see some high end chain stores and there's even a nice new multi-story outdoor mall next to a canal. They're really made some great improvements to the city, you can tell. And they're refurbishing a new park near the main canal bridge, which is undergoing a restoration. We hit the Art Nouveau museum first. We read that it's really just an empty house. No furniture, glass, collectibles, jewelry, etc. But for $3 each, it was worth it to see the house inside and out. Then we walked all over town looking for more of these architectural masterpieces. It was sunny and warm and we grabbed the requisite espresso before finding a nice local seafood place for a late lunch.

We made our way across the town to a large central park with huge steps leading down to a pond. We only had about 6 hours to spend on our one day in town, but it was a nice change from beach culture towns or big cities. At dinner the night before, we met an American expat couple and their daughter/son in law. They love living there and mentioned they just celebrated a Thanksgiving meal party with all expats in town from all over the world. Over 60 people showed up from a dozen or so countries.

In the early afternoon, we bought the inexpensive train tickets to Porto. We're close enough to be on a commuter "Urbano" line. It makes frequent stops, but it's a new metro style train that takes just over an hour to get to Porto. We've got a room waiting for us there for 3 nights.

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