Aveiro - the Venice of Portugal

Note - I just noticed that I hadn’t uploaded this footprint. Whoops!

Rick Steves’ guidebook is full of good information regarding the part of Portugal that we are now exploring - the northwest area between Porto and Lisbon. We thought that we would spend 3 or 4 nights in a few of the more interesting cities as we travel south to Lisbon. Our first stop was only 1 hour away.

We left Porto by train and arrived in a pretty, university city called Aveiro. It will be a nice change to be in a small city, close to the ocean.

Aveiro is situated on an estuary of a river, surrounded by marshlands that run 50 km parallel to the sea. It is called the Venice of Portugal, because of the surrounding water (canals, lagoon and the nearby Atlantic Ocean). Years ago, the city flooded regularly but now they have it under control.

Nowadays, Aveiro is also known for its salt pans and architecture. There are about 30 buildings that are built according to the Art Nouveau style.

We arrived in the new train station (right next door to the bus station) and beside the old train station with its blue and white Portuguese tiles depicting life in Aveiro. The tiles were made in a big ex-tile factory in Aveiro in the early 1900s.

A short walk brought us to our apartment for 3 days. The photos below were taken over the three days we were in Aveiro and give a quick view of some of the places we saw.Read more