Apr 24: Portugal: 14-19 Home to Aveiro

Sunday 14 April

Ferry to Santander from Plymouth. 

297 miles. 

Fort Picklecombe.

Boarding.

Meal on board. 

Drakes Island.

Mike showed me Fort Picklecombe where we stayed last year - and all his old haunts along the coast.. 😁

Monday 15 April

On the road for about 4pm - in the rain.. 🤣☔

Our first Spanish bull.

The rain stopped as we drove.

Cudillero

171 miles

Pretty little town set into an inlet on the rocky coast. Very up and down! Didn't explore much. 

Early night.

Nico's first day in reception 💕🥰

Tuesday 16 April

More rain this morning so we didn't stop to look round the town. Shame as there were some interesting views points - but probably best not done when wet and slippery.. 🤣

More rain and some very thick cloud as we were pretty high up.. and down.. lots of ear popping 🫨

Stopped in Betanzos. 

NOW we're on holiday - proper Spanish breakfast..😋

A huge outdoor market with loads going on.

Found the old walled town.

The sky started to clear.

Pontevedra

210 miles

Bright sunshine by the time we got here.

Beautiful buildings, fountains and pilgrims crosses.

Basilica de Santa Maria a maior - 16th century, commissioned by the local fishermen.

A candle for Siobhan - who was Catholic - and for Carol - who wasn't.. 💕

More convents and churches.

The unused entrance of the Santa Maria basilica which faced the river - very beautiful in its neglected state!

The ruins of the 14th century Santo Domingo convent were being restored and were closed. Shame as it looked very beautiful (stock pic) from the glimpse we could get peering round the fences and machinery.. 😁

 

Great meal. Local cuisine.

Zorza - Galician pork - flavoured like chorizo but sort of chunkier. Croca de tenera - Galician beef cut into fillets. Both lovely.

Another earlyish night - it was a long drive today. 

Wednesday 17 April

Breakfast in the sunshine by a fountain.

More wandering. Markings and crosses for the pilgrim route.

Market - smaller than I thought it would be. 

Another church - can't remember which one.

Fewer scaffolds etc round the ruins so a chance to take some pics. 

Over the river Minho (which is the border) - and we're in Portugal!

.. and we've regained the hour we lost in Spain.. 🙄⌚

Viana do Castelo

70 miles

Arrived at 12.30 due to the extra hour but they kindly let us into our room 2.5 hours early.. 😁

Another town, another wander.

Took the funicular up to the Santa Luzia basilica.

Great views of the coast.

Modelled on the Sacré Coeur in Paris. Lit another candle for Carol and one for Siobhan.

Cathedral, more churches.. all very ornate. Another candle for Carol and Siobhan 😁

Beer and a cheese board after all the walking - and a pastel de nata.. 😋

The pilgrim route signs are all over.

The Eiffel bridge - modelled on the design of the Eiffel tower - transports both train (lower) and cars/lorries (upper). Visible from our hotel window.

Mike enjoyed a beer on the balcony.

Thursday 18 April

Pretty sky over the river.

Crossing the Douro river at Porto - will visit on the way back.

We managed to incur a ticket fine en route by going through the wrong lane at a toll booth and not actually getting a ticket. About £46 - so an expensive drive!

Aveiro

100 miles

Very disconcerting to see a hundred Wendys sitting on the loo.. 🤣

A wander and brunch/lunch as we were far too early for our room.

Aveiro is known as the Venice of Portugal with its little canals. 

Coffee and cake stop at the fish market. 

Ribbons at the friendship bridge. 

The gondolas are painted on the curved ends - some have saints or religious scenes - others are painted with scenes reminiscent of 1950s bawdy seaside postcards.. ooer missus!.. 🤣

Candles lit in two churches now for Carol and Siobhan - and a note of their names left on a church art board.. 💕

We tried the local sweets - ovos moles - egg yolk, sugar and sometimes ground almonds in specific shaped rice paper (like religious wafers are made from) casings - said to have been developed by nuns. Ok - wouldn't go mad for them. 

Meal at a small restaurant. Prawns and goose barnacles for Mike and hake fillet with rice and bean stew. I know which one I preferred!

Seemed like a lot of hard work for not much reward!

My game was delicious! The stew too.

Bought some ceramic swallows for an idea for the yard for summer.

Friday 19 April

Aveiro

A slow wander - first to the cathedral. Even the tourist blurb said it was an unremarkable design - and they weren't wrong. It was also undergoing renovations and difficult to get into. 

A walk to the railway station - beautiful tiled facade.

So many lovely art nouveau buildings 

A look inside the art nouveau museum which was originally the house of a local family. 

Beautiful façade, tiled area downstairs and pretty yard but the rest was disappointing.

Original spiral staircase was lovely. 

Mike in the yard drinking coffee.

Old fish market literally at the end of the canal.

Boat trip in a moliceiro - originally used to gather seaweeds and salts and bring them into the city.

Defying the trend our guide wore a straw boater.. 🙄🤣

The canals were built in 1808 after great storm damage blocked the estuary and destroyed the flourishing and prosperous sea trade. 

The canals are all enclosed but every 14 days the sluices to the sea are opened and the outgoing tide empties the canals - then they are completely refilled with new sea water when the next tide comes in - it stops smells and keeps the canals clean!

The last salt factory from the salt plains at the side.

This used to be a huge tile factory - didn't get chance to look at the tile museum.

A beer stop turned into a port and cod and cheese sort of fried rissole looking thing stop. On a special palette. With beer anyway 😁 a total tourist thing.. 🤣

We watched the girl making perfect large cod quenelles (we've watched MasterChef 🤣) before deep frying. 

Nunnery/palace/museum near where we stayed. 

I managed to come to Portugal without debit/credit cards but I did bring my driving license for some reason. It came in useful again to prove I'm over 65 and eligible for free entry 😁

Back to Rossio restaurant for more cod and green wine 😋