Portugese Venice

Aviero is an old town, it has links to Roman times when it supplied salt, still does as a matter of fact. There are miles of salt pans and tidal lagoons interspersed with canals and of course the Rio. As a landscape it is very open, but that can be deceptive as we were about to discover.....

After we had moored at the yacht club pontoon we walked down the canal de Pyramides into the centre of the old quarter.

This bridge marks the end of the canal de Pyramides where it joins the river, our pontoon is just beyond it. The gondola like craft is a `molociero` there are many taking tourists on trips through the canals of the "Portugese Venice". I must admit as we walked down the canal into the old town I had a bit of a double take.

See what I mean? We were quietly surprised and delighted by how pretty the town is, a total contrast to the industrial landscape we had travelled through to get here. I couldn't help thinking of Port Merion in North Wales as my eye was caught by yet another building.

As is our usual practise we sought out the tourist information office to get a map of the town. Of course one of the other things Aveiro is famous for is its Art Nouveau architecture, of which the tourist information office is a lovely example.

Everywhere we looked was another architectural delight. some actually fooling us momentarily. In the photo below the building on the right is actually a painted canvas and the one straight ahead (with the woman in the window ) is actually a mural.

There were cafe bars, restaurants, and quirky shops a plenty to pass the time.

And tiles, everywhere......

Even the graffiti was high class....
We had a meal and stocked up on a few local delicacy's, these are known as Ovos moles and are basically a sugary syrup in a communion wafer shaped as a sea shell, or fish barrel. To be honest nothing to write home about and at 75cts each overpriced to boot.

We wandered back into town in the evening. Very often buildings are better appreciated under floodlights.

we again enjoyed watching the gondolas performing screeching turns around the tight canals.

we walked around and found the Cathedral.

a lot of the streets were decorated with fish, made from fabric and strung up in the air.

It certainly made for a crick in the neck!

We also found a strange echo of Belfast's bridge of padlocks where lovers would leave padlocks locked on a bridge and throw the keys in the water. In Aveiro however they did a similar thing with ribbons. thousands all with two names on. Rather romantic, I am sure we have some ribbon aboard?

We had merely scratched the surface of Aveiro it was obvious, luckily we were staying for a few days and were looking forward to discovering what the city had to offer. We had certainly been pleasantly surprised so far.........