The Great Escape

Up early (honestly-though it was difficult to be otherwise with the tramping of feet down the street from the early hours all going to see Papa Bento). Despite the allure of commemerative umbrellas, folding chairs and even windbreaks, we decided to give mass a miss and get out for the day. So we recharged our Metro tickets (K is still miffed that the machine will not speak to her in English as requested whilst it will quite happily do so for me and that my Portuguese mumblings produce results, ie tickets, whilst hers in particular as regards sha or tea mostly get blank stares- c'est la language vie!) and made it onto the 8.55am train to Aveiro - we were amazed and consternated that we had made it out of Porto before 9am as planned! The Great Escape had begun!

Aveiro is in the Bairo Litoral - so we even made it into a whole new area of Portugal than the Douro - and is known as Portugal's Venice. A very long walk down the Avenue - much further than the guidebook indicated and we hit Aveiro itself and the rain also paid us a visit but after a quick hot chocolate, the sun was out and it was time to wander the peaceful canals with seaweed nibbling fish, as well as brightly coloured seaweed boats and adjacent houses plus funky bridges all accompanied by the distant hum of the motorway. This is definitely the place to come if you are Azelujos hunting and if you want to discover moles in eggs.





Ovos Moles - local speciality, sweet and orange and gooey inside

Unfortunately, Papa Bento's visit meant that some of the restuarant owners including the one over the fish market, were on pilgrimmage to Porto, but we managed to get a good, thincrust pizza (mine with capers -described as akin to olives) and indulged in the required colouring on the paper tablecloth - the best examples of which get put on the walls - don't think our efforts will make the cut but if you visit and see a Frosty at the Beach that looks like it's been drawn by a 5 year old - then he's ours!

Frosty needs no introduction

Then, it was the long, long walk back, this time punctuated by shopping ostensibly to shelter from the rain, but shooes were again viewed as well as a lovely homeware shop (butterflies were pinned onto the merchandise with such care I wanted to take photos) - we have the web address for future :) It was nice to be back in a small place where people are friendlier and try really hard to communicate with us despite our lack in both Portuguese and English, as the cafe owners and the shop assistants all proved. Then, it was back on the train to Porto, tiredness and the blurring scenery making us nod off, but we were safe in the knowledge that if we dropped off, we were the last stop on the train, so should hopefully not end up anywhere unexpected. The great shopping expedition starts tomorrow - really we have been very restrained to date......