We have arrived in Aveiro, an adorable little fishing town about 40 minutes south of Porto which is the perfect overnight stop over on our way to Lisbon as it has been described as overwhelmingly charming and picturesque. It has been known as the ‘Venice’ or Portugal due to its scenic waterways, where colourful gondola-style boats pass through.
We got the train from Porto this morning at 11am costing $8NZD pp for the 1hour 10 min journey South, and we recommend booking a day in advance as the train was fully booked and lots of people were standing the whole journey.
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Waking up not hungry in the slightest as we had eaten our body weight in food last night we opted for a beautiful long lie and movies in bed. At about 10am we started to get peckish and got ready for day of walking the city, exploring the areas we didn’t manage yesterday. We planned to go to Zenith, which from the reviews I highly recommend BUT we didn’t get there in time so the line was down the street and we decided to give it a miss as I was hangry. We would have loved to have tried it though if we weren’t leaving tomorrow. We ended up around the corner in a beautiful bakery but with the worst service imaginable. I left pretty hungry and a little angry as I hate more than anything spending money on food when it’s not worth it. However, regardless the fact I was feeling a little low and down and still hungry I found this bear a couple of times on our walk and for some reason hugging a gigantic bear in the morning makes you feel so much better. We then headed off on a huge walk across the St Luis bridge to the other side of the river and walk towards the ocean. It’s a good 7km from our house but the walk is totally beautiful and well worth it. The village is called Afurada and it is a wonderful fishermen village just outside Porto which is still not damaged by tourism, so it’s a great place to spend an afternoon eating seafood and getting away from the city and the herds of tourists.
Porto is the second largest city in Portugal and one of its most colourful! We managed to get cheap RyanAir flights from Marrakech for $50NZD pp (plus all the shitty added extras) but worth the price to tick this destination off the list. The city has been described as ‘’the capital city of food (YAAASSSS) in the country with abundant of seafood restaurants along the Douro river and home to one of the finest port wine’’ (DOUBLE YAAASSS). We are spending three nights and have booked a beautiful Air B n B about 1 km from the center. We headed to the Sao Bento station to grab out tickets for Aveiro on Saturday and I can’t recommend going there enough. It is far more than merely a transport hub for Porto's residents; on the walls of the grand entrance, 20,000 azulejo (traditional painted tiles) depict Porto's history through it’s beautiful blue and white tiles littered across the walks and roof. From there we spent the day wandering around this beautiful city, making our way down to the famous Dom Luis I Bridge which was designed by Gustav Eiffel. The bridge, ranked #1 for things to do in Porto on Tripadvisor, becomes the heart and soul of the city in the late afternoon and was mobbed when we got there after spending an hour or so soaking up the sun with coffee’s and beers along the river’s edge.
We walked the bridge from both the bottom and top (not for the faint hearted) and it was truly a spectacular sight. It is definitely worth walking both levels but the view from the top is by far the best lookout point you can get in Porto. |
AuthorHey! I'm Ally. I left the UK in 2011 to move overseas and ended up in New Zealand - my new home. This year we are taking a gap year to loop the world stopping in some AMAZING destinations - and I'm passionate about sharing these adventures with you! ArchivesCategories |