Day 35 Friday 20 September

After that very stressful and late night we slept till 9am and went down to a pretty shabby breakfast.  In the light of day, my first impressions of our accomodation have not improved. The room is very small and the bathroom ridiculously dysfunctional.  I can’t even get the bathroom door 3/4 open or it hits the toilet, the bidet is so close to the toilet you cant sit on it the right way as you leg doesn’t fit in-between…  and then the breakfast selection is extremely limited – a bit like Milan, albeit it has eggs and bacon.  However, they are not actually palatable – runny and undercooked scrambled egg,  and cremated bacon.

Just because something is on the buffet it doesn’t mean it’s worth eating.  There are some ok breads and nice jams, a good fresh fruit selection (chopped of course except for some spotty banana) and a fresh orange juice press. At the entry there is a little cake stand with some Portuguese custard tarts so we had something to eat – albeit weighted on the sugar.

Photo above – our street corner. Photo below – view from our window.

In the daylight the area around the hotel still looks seedy, but our positioning to things as originally planned for is good.  I don’t know what google was doing last night, but the walk from the station is actually really short. Although up a very steep street, it is smooth, direct and semi lit;  we didn’t need a taxi at all last night.

The weather has changed dramatically for us with rain forecast on and off all week. We spent a bit of time going over our itinerary and trying to choose the best use of time, location, and weather.  Today it looks as though it will hold, so we decided to hit the beach and go to Aveiro even though we only had half a day. 

Aveiro is about an hour by train, which run hourly from Sao Bento. We headed down the steep road and got tickets which only cost €7 return each which is really cheap. You couldn’t get these tickets from a machine (not sure why out of town ones have to be purchased from humans), so we had to join a long queue at a counter and only just got them in time for the 1pm departure – whew.

Photo below – intersection near our hotel facing major shopping street.

The Aveiro station, like Sao Bento is also notable for its pretty tiles. When we arrived we were disappointed to see that they were pretty much obscured due to renovations (again). 

We continued on following our noses and some signs to the older area of town.  It is an easy and somewhat boring 15 minute walk, or you could wait for a bus, hire an uber style tuk tuk, or take a tour for about 9-15 Euro.  Notable in the old town are canals, giving rise to the branding of ‘Portugal’s Venice’.   I think the comparison is a very big stretch of the imagination given to attract tourists.  It’s €10 for a 50 minute ride in the boats; we felt this was exorbitant, so opted for walking around the two main canals instead.

This proved to be very scenic with a colourful and shabby chic array of old tiled houses, each sporting its own style lining the narrow streets and canals. There was one tiny canal which has some bright painted houses that may – just may at a streeetch resemble something from Burano (Island near Venice).

Photo above: Not sure why one would paint that on a tourist boat….

We paused for lunch which ended up not being the best idea as it took so long to arrive; apparently the grill had problems.  This cut into our short afternoon’s tourist activity time considerably.  I did have a very nice grilled bream and Vern had pork medallions, both were served with generous amounts of olive oil and crispy hand cut potato slices.  

Further to the old town and canals, the second notable sight at Aveiro is its nearby beach called Costa Nova, which is gaily decorated with striking quintessential striped beach houses.  We found a bus stop on the main street near our cafe, and for €2.40 each, one way, we had an interesting ride with locals in a very comfortable modern bus.  Our 45 minute slow, all-stops journey took us past the port with stacks of huge wind turbine blades lined up, along salt flats, through seaside village shops, to the candy cane beach side town.  We were entertained by screeming kids, vocal young women commenting to the driver on all manner of things and a psychologically or mentally unwell woman in front of us having very animated conversations with her either multiple personalities or self …  Yup, we like to get local.

Costa Nova was delightful, and it was a shame we were pushed for time to catch the last train home to Porto, or I could have spent a lot more time wandering around the uber quaint cottages, and relaxing on the pale golden beach being bathed by the cooling Atlantic breezes. 

The atmosphere here is a bit like Blackpool in England with lighthouses and seaside amusement activities, candy floss and music.  I even quietly joined in the party atmosphere whilst waiting for the bus, and sung along and had a little dance to Vernon to “Give me hope Joanna” and “I don’t want to dance, dance with you no more”.

We made our connection for the 7:18pm train and travelled home parallel to the coast, with peeps of the sun sinking low and illuminating the sky with a pale dusky pink and golden haze. Coming back over the bridges that span the Douro, and travelling along the banks of the river with the city all lit up was spectacular.  

Once home we googled the best places to have a famous Porto meat sandwich called, “Francesinha”.  As it transpired one of the best places is about a 5 minute walk from our hotel so we set off,  again with google doing a dumb route that took longer and then not taking us quite the right place.  As we were pausing to work out what was going on a lovely mature lady asked us if we needed help; even though she didn’t speak english she could read where we wanted to go. She pointed a few steps up on the left, which incidentally was not what google was telling us as she re-routed us for the 6th time!

The little local pub was literally bursting with people spilling out to the street and queuing for their place. Fortunately it wasn’t too long a wait till we got offered a seat at the bar.  We ordered a sandwich and a special hot dog version (the sandwiches are too big for one of us) and settled in to enjoy the very lively and most agreeable atmosphere.  Our bar side seats were the best in the house for taking in all the action.  We delighted at the smooth running operation, creating an assembly line of hundreds of carbohydrate laden, melting cheese blanketed, lip smacking, towering creations.

I award a double NOM NOM to them – I think its the sauce which of course is a secret – but its a beer, tomato and slightly spiced light jus.  The idea is to serve it over the sandwich to further melt the cheese and create a fondue experience. Add to that dipping the crisp chips into the sauce along with the meaty smorgasbord filling encased by pillows of  thick, soft, white bread.   Wa-la; the Portuguese version of croque monsieur (better I think).  The young, fresh, green white wine I enjoyed is very similar to the one they serve in San Sebastián; a hint of fizz and the right balance of acid and sweet accompanied by a fresh bouquet.  Vern really enjoyed the Super Bock beer.  Our bar man was charming and topped up our glasses for free ….  another bonus to getting local. All up €20 what a bargain!

We didn’t need google to get home as it was just down the street – but in the words of Arnold – “I’ll be back”.