Day: August 16, 2021

Venturing Slightly Further Afield….Via Train

Last night we perused the train website (www.cp.pt) to plan a day trip to the coastal city of Aveiro (yet another spot-on recommendation from our daughter….thanks, Kathleen!). Thankfully this site offers both Portuguese and English language options. Porto has two train stations: Sao Bento (5-minute walk from our hotel) and Companha (25-minute walk from our hotel). As it turns out, Companha Station offers the more direct route to Aveiro. So…we opted to walk further to avoid the transfer (which would have taken longer, even taking the walk into consideration). With tickets purchased, we got a solid night’s sleep in preparation for another day of travel adventure.

After a big breakfast (which, of course, included fresh-squeezed orange juice and cafe longo from my favorite machines in the hotel), we set out for the train station. It was a very easy route and we arrived ahead of schedule with no wrong turns (yay!!). The train station was very clean and easy to navigate and we found the correct platform quickly. Our train was regional (rather than urban), so we only stopped a couple of times on our hour-ish trip to Aveiro. The route ran along the ocean through largely rural landscape.

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After arriving in Aveiro, we easily located the center of town (an quick 10-minute walk) and began to take in the sights. (Side note: there were two cow statues in the train station….not sure what that was about?). Aveiro, with its canals, is sometimes referred to as the “Venice of Portugal,” and is lovely! Shops and restaurants line the streets and canals, and canal tours are readily available. We wandered a bit and decided to indulge in a canal tour.

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Touring the canals

Rather than the gondolas of Venice fame, the boats in Aveiro are called moliceiros. Moliceiros were traditionally used to transport algae/seaweed for use as fertilizer but are now primarily used as tour boats. Larger boats, called marcantels (I believe) were used for transporting merchandise. The vibrant painted decorations (two at the stem, two at the stern) on the moliceiros are typically reminiscent of Portuguese folk art and would have identified the boat owner.

Riding along in our moliceiro, we heard about the salt trade in Aveiro and saw many points of interest. From the oldest pedestrian bridge in the city to a very new bridge resembling a fishing net to the many art nouveau style buildings and turn-of-the-century pottery factory, it was a thoroughly enjoyable (and informative) 45 minute excursion.

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After our tour we walked up and down the canal, taking in as much of this beautiful town as possible. From artwork to shops and interesting architecture, Aveiro has much to offer!

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Side Note: our guide possessed amazing language skills! She repeated all information in three languages throughout the tour (Portuguese, English and Spanish). She also speaks French…but the French couple that initially boarded our boat transferred to another boat to accommodate a larger family.

The Most Beautiful Mall in Europe

While on our moliceiro tour, the guide informed us that the open air mall next to the canal (called Forum) was recently voted the most beautiful mall in Europe. And while we have only visited two other European malls, we can definitely see why! Atop the mall is a garden filled with olive trees. After our tour, we visited the olive garden (no relation to the US restaurant chain…), with its gazebo, benches and many walkways. It really was quite lovely!

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Local Deliciousness

A brief internet search identified a couple of “must try” local delicacies: ovos moles de Aveiro and eel stew. We were not all that excited at the prospect of eel stew….but we are always excited to sample a new dessert! Ovos moles de Aveiro are DELICIOUS pastries made of egg yoks and sugar encased in a thin wafers in nautical shapes (usually shells). They originated at area convents, and nuns eventually passed their recipe to local women who then began selling ovos moles at the train station on the Lisbon-Porto line.

In lieu of eel stew, we opted for grilled fish with vegetables at a restaurant close to canal. Since we went with such a healthy option….we indulged in yet another sweet treat: crepes with ovos moles filling sprinkled with cinnamon. We regret nothing.

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We’ll Be Back

A brief day trip to Aveiro was fun…but not nearly enough time to thoroughly enjoy the area. We would love to return and see the beach with its colorful houses and dunes, the museums, salt farm, monastery and many other amazing sights in this beautiful town.

But, for now, back to Porto.

We decided to finish our Three in One deal with Yellow Bus Tours by taking the Historic Porto route. Our plan of attack started with breakfast. We were pretty worn out from all out travel yesterday, so we skipped breakfast at the hotel. Instead, we found some nice take away sandwiches and coffees at a restaurant near the Praça da Liberdade. Armed with breakfast, be boarded the bus!

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Once again, we saw many of the buildings and parks and squares of this very old city. Regardless of how many times we have seen the sights, there is always something new. Despite having been around the city several times, we still picked up interesting tidbits. For instance, the original city charter dates back to 461 according to the tour guide. Also, the Portuguese spoken by the people of Porto is slightly different than the rest of the country and there are some words that are specific to Porto. For instance, a beer (cerveja) in Porto is called a finol. It specifically refers to a small glass of beer, but the word is a Porto word. This tour also took us across the Douro to Vila Nova de Gaia and gave us a few new sights.

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When we finished the tour, Donna suggested we find some Port to sample. Even though Port takes its name from the city of Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia is the city that produces the most Port. We opted to trek back uphill from the Praça da Liberdade in order to cross the top level of the Ponte Luis I. The top level typically has less foot traffic and one can dodge the train traffic more easily than the auto traffic on the lower level.

Once into Gaia, we opted to ride the Teleférico de Gaia cable car down to the wine/vending/riverside area of Gaia. When we bought the tickets, we received coupons for one free glass of port at Quevedo. An omen… sign from above? – perhaps. We just thought it was pretty neat! And it was very nice of them to help us decide where we would taste our port – there are SOOOO many tasting rooms! We followed the map (also assisted by Google Maps) and found ourselves at Quevedo. At some point we would like to tour a port facility, but since (barring disaster) we will be back in Porto in the near future…we are saving that experience for later.

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Before we knew it, we each had four glasses of port and one very generous Portuguese cheese tray. Port wine comes in four flavors, white, rosé, red and tawny. Port wine making begins by processing the grapes in the same fashion as wine. Early in the fermentation process, clear distilled liquor is added to the wine to stop the fermentation. The result is a stronger and very distinct tasting wine. The white, rose and red ports are bottled and served. They are younger and capture the flavor of the fruits. Tawny port is aged in barrels, which sacrifices the fruity flavor for more flavor complexity. Our favorite is definitely the tawny. The hosts at Quevedo were kind enough to provide us a sample of their 10-year tawny after we’d finished our tasting. And we were kind enough to buy a bottle from them – yum!

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The cheese board cannot go unmentioned. We received three cheese samples, one cow milk cheese aged with paprika, one goat milk, and one cow and goat milk. Though they were all good, the mixed cheese was amazing! Additionally, we received a fig jam, which was just heavenly! All were delicious. As we figuratively stumbled out into the street… we decided that a second ride on the cable car was preferable to climbing the (at least) six stairs back up to our hotel. This would have also been a good time to grab the funicular, but the cable cars were closer. So up we went, once again taking in the amazing sights of the Douro River Valley! And finally in our room back to the hotel, we took a small (port assisted?) nap.