Aveiro

We wanted to be out the door by 8:30 this morning, so we set an alarm that went off way too quickly for me as I had gone to bed after 1:00 a.m. We made our goal time and walked down the block to a less congested area to order a Bolt (like Uber). A Bolt driver must have been just around the corner because about 30 seconds after we had made the selection the car was pulling up. We went to the rental car location that was a few miles away but still in the city.

We got to the rental car company at a few minutes before 9:00a.m. and was helped right away. I’m glad we got there when we did because as I was being helped a line started to form behind me. It seemed to take forever for them to process the reservation, but I think their computers were going up and down. Then of course we had to go over the insurance options which I initially declined, but then the rep told me the middle coverage was $50. That seemed reasonable so I said yes, but when she got to the itemized receipt the total was well over $1,000. I didn’t realize it was $50/day so then I asked her to take it back off so she had to re-do it. After about 20 minutes of having stood at the counter I finally had the keys to our brand new Peugeot with only 2,107 kilometers on it.

Tom set our destination in the GPS for our next Airbnb in Aveiro which was only about an hour away. We got out of the city and onto the freeway with no issues. The rental car was a very smooth ride and the freeway was in great condition. This was much nicer driving conditions than either Panama or Turks and Caicos, my two most recent foreign driving experiences. We made it to town in to time and all and found a parking spot very close to our AirBnB. Tom didn’t know it at that time he was planning our itinerary, but street parking is free on Saturdays and Sundays. How perfect for us since we are only staying here one night and it is Saturday!

We left the car and went on the hunt to find somewhere for breakfast/brunch. The city is much smaller compared to Porto so it was very easy to walk where we thought a good selection of restaurants would be. We were in the old part of the city and found a great little cafe where we sat outside and shared a ham and cheese croissant and yogurt with fresh fruit. I also had a very tart berry lemonade while Tom had a smoothie. The croissant was slightly disappointing as it was not as flaky and light like we are used to, but it was still good. The yogurt was outstanding.

While we were waiting for our food, I read the travel guide book for things to do in Aveiro. One of the things it mentioned was to go to a spa for a salt therapy massage since Aveiro is known for their salt pans. We tried looking up the spas mentioned in the guidebook online, but couldn’t seem to find them. I did find however, Aveiro Spa Treatment Center and we thought that it might be nice to get a massage, salt or no salt. We didn’t feel like calling due to potential language barriers so we decided it was close enough that we would walk over to see if they had any availability, but first there was a geocache to do! It was only a couple of hundred feet away near a church. The geocache was a good one hidden in a wall with a covering that looked like a pipe would connect for water.

We made our way over to Aveiro Spa and found it in a small space in the corner of a newer building. We had to ring a doorbell to be let in, but was greeted right away. I was right about a potential language barrier. The workers only spoke very little English but we were able to communicate. I asked if they had time for a couple’s massage and they said they did!! I asked how much and it was only 60 Euro for both of us for an hour!! That is an incredible price. I pay way more for that at home for just myself for an hour. I will say however, the spa itself was rudimentary at best and the massage was not a deep tissue as I’m used to getting. It felt more like a body rub than a massage. With that being said it still felt great and relaxing especially since I was running low on sleep. It definitely helped to rejuvenate me. This was Tom’s first “professional” massage experience and he now understands why I go once a month. It may not have been the “touristy” Aveiro thing to do, but still a good choice.

After the spa we used the travel guide book to take ourselves on an Art Nouveau walking tour. Art Nouveau is a style of decorative art, architecture, and design prominent in western Europe and the USA from about 1890 until the First World War and characterized by intricate linear designs and flowing curves based on natural forms. The first stop was at the original train station terminal. I have to say that I thought the terminal was a very pretty building. Across the street from the train station was a little cafe to get Ovos Moles. I had also read in the guide book about these sweet treats that Aveiro is known for. This seemed like as a good as time as any to give them a try. They are made from combining sugar syrup and egg yolks. To me the outside tasted like communion wafer and the inside tasted like egg. We weren’t huge fans and prefer the pastel de natas, but we’re glad we tried them.

We picked back up our walking tour and found two more buildings before Tom received a message from our AirBnB host that he wanted to meet us to show us the apartment and give us the keys. We abandoned our self-guided tour and walked back to meet him. We are staying in a newly renovated apartment on the third floor. It is a very nice space. Our host was very chatty and had a ton of recommendations. One of the things to do in Aveiro is to take a moliceiro boat (similar to a gondola) ride in the canals. This was one of the reasons Tom picked this city, but once he saw these boats contained a bunch of people and weren’t just made for two, it kind of lost its appeal. Earlier in the day we had decided we weren’t going to do it, but after talking to our host we changed our minds. He partners with some of the boat operators and sold us the tickets on the spot. They normally stop operating at 5:15, but since it was Saturday and such a nice day they were operating until 6:00. It was probably around 4:30 when we decided we would go, so we picked the 6:00 time slot. This gave us time to get our bags out of the car, settle in, and take a shower since we were both oil slicks from our massage.

We left the BnB at 5:40 and walked down to the canal and found which one of the boat companies was ours. Turns out we were the only people on the 6:00 tour!! I guess it worked out that we didn’t do the tour earlier in the day. We enjoyed our conversation with our tour guide and was happy to have the one-on-one experience. It was a nice way to see parts of the city, but I will say if we hadn’t of done it we wouldn’t have missed out on too much.

I was definitely ready for dinner after the boat tour but first we finished the Art Nouveau walking tour. All of the remaining stops on the tour were in close proximity to where we got off the canal ride. Having checked this off the list, next up was to find a place for dinner. We went to the two places our BnB host recommended to look at their menus, but I wasn’t feeling a super expensive seafood meal so we wandered around looking for something else. I dragged Tom all over the city before we decided we would just walk back to the first place we checked out. On the way there however, we stopped to look at one more menu and the desserts caught my attention with an Oreo Mousse. They also had pastas and burgers for a much more reasonable price. Sold!! This place would work for me. We shared a calamari appetizer, I had a pasta dish with shrimp, mushrooms, bacon, and egg and Tom had a burger. We both split our meals in half and shared so we could have some of each. I liked the pasta better than the burger, but I would say both were good but not great. We of course did have the Oreo mouse which I was 100% satisfied with. I love me some Oreo!!

After dinner we found a mini market and bought a 5 liter bottle of water for 1.29 Euro, one beer for me, and two Somersby’s for Tom. The total for all was 6.52 Euro. Seemed pretty reasonable. We took them back to the BnB to enjoy on our rooftop patio while writing the blog.

Stats of the Day

Steps: 17,314
Geocaches: 1
Stops on Art Nouveau Walking Tour: 9