Jaunty Euro scarf – ✅. Ready for a day of exploring Aveiro and Porto!
A Day in Aviero
Our guide, Susana, picked us up at our hotel, and we headed south to the coastal town of Aveiro, which is billed as the Venice of Portugal. Turns out, thaaaaat’s a stretch. Aveiro is pretty, but I don’t think Venice needs to feel threatened.
Portugal is covered in eucalyptus trees. Covered. Susana knows a staggering amount about eucalyptus trees. You wanna know about eucalyptus trees? I’ve got you.
Quick stop at the coastal village of Costa Nova, famous for the colorful, striped fisherman’s houses that line the coast. Well, they used to be fishermen’s houses. Now they are vacation rentals. Susana said this place is total gridlock in the summer. Today? Almost apocalyptically empty.
Our tour included a gondola-ish boat ride on the canals of Aveiro. Our tour operator sent us bottle of Portuguese sparkling wine and a bag of ovos moles de Aveiro – the famous cookie of Aveiro – to enjoy on the ride. So, the cookie. Ken: what flavor is it? Me: (after biting into it) ummmm, egg flavor. No rush to buy more of these.
Walked around for a bit after our boat ride. Visited one of the six historic art nouveau houses in Aveiro, which is now an art nouveau museum. Again, museum is a stretch. Let’s go with small exhibit. The tile work though – incredible. I already have plans to re-tile our bathroom.
Back in Porto: World of Wine & The Yeatman
I really wanted to see the World of Wine Museum, and particularly, the Art of Drinking exhibit, which is someone’s *private* collection of over 2,000 drinking vessels spanning over 9,000 years of drinking history. This museum was made for me. Well done!
Got a tip that the best place in Porto for a cocktail is The Yeatman, in Gaia – because you look back to Porto over the Douro River. Not included in that tip was a warning that this place is located at the top of a fucken mountain. My legs are spaghetti from the hike up here. To be honest, we were probably underdressed, but I didn’t hike Mount Portugal to leave without my cocktail. Great cocktails, indeed. And the view was incredible. Once I stopped sweating.
Saúde!
Travel date: February 2, 2025
Drinking vessels! How cool! The world of wine museum is a perfect spot for you. Except for the spaghetti legs, this sounds like a fun day!
It was a lovely day – and that museum is extremely well done.
Yes, we weren’t overly impressed with Aveiro either. And really glad we didn’t have those cookies 😊 Maggie
Glad we weren’t the only ones!
Absolutely beautiful photos even if for my Northern European/Scandinavian tastes the glassware is far too ‘fussily’ decorated 🙂 !
Thank you . . . I have the same Northern Euro and Scandinavian tastes, but I’m drawn to the fuss because of the craftsmanship.
Oh I like the idea of a drinking vessel museum, that’s very cool. However, if I had £5 for each time I’ve heard of somewhere described as “the Venice of such and such” I’d probably have at least £35 more than I currently have.
[…] the people are super friendly and welcoming. Not sure I’m in love with the food (everything is covered in egg yolks), but the wines are perfection. Would absolutely make a return […]
I enjoyed Aveiro a lot, but then, I wasn’t expecting Venice.