By mommie2zs in Europe 2023 — Jun 4, 2023

Aveiro Day 10 - Europe 2023

Our energy deflated after our travel companions left on Day 9. We lounged around our apartment, a little sad, a little weary, not ready to switch gears to a new trip of just the three of us.

We indulged in that feeling over the rest of the evening then reset our batteries for a fresh beginning to the trip on this new day.

We had a walking tour scheduled, but had a message waiting for us when we woke up that it had been cancelled.

Okay, new plan.

Buds and I headed out for our ramble. You may have already read about the discovery of the pink cafe, but that wasn’t all.

Another in my series, “Buddie taking pictures of tile.”

We found these fun swing seats outside a restaurant that wasn’t open yet.

Can confirm; very comfy, especially if you don’t have broad shoulders. 😉

We went into this church to light candles for Cash and family, as we’ve done in every church we’ve gone in on this trip.

Hunted up the bike rental shop for later.

Meandered through this scholastic book fair of Portuguese books and

discussed the fun things you can try when you have safe, comfortable community spaces.

Then we headed back to see what Yessa was up to. On the way we passed this impressive, yet terrifying “statue.” I literally said, “That’s a statue?” as we walked by. Then we saw the whites of his eyes.

When you dropped money in the watering pitcher, he would turn and thank you.

The brain processes information so quickly and often unconsciously. I remembered this morning that as we were crossing the street toward the biking not-a-statue, I was thinking, that statue has been rubbed all over for luck.

As you’ve probably seen, the bright shiny spots on statues are the spots that are touched frequently. Generally there is only one spot.

Like this dog statue in Budapest. You can tell many people have patted the head and rubbed the ear. 💖

That’s what my brain was trying to process as we approached bike man. There were too many shiny spots.

Once we were home with Yessa, we decided to get in our boat tour in the morning since it was an overcast day.

The tour was great. It was our family and a Portuguese couple. The guide was fluent in both Portuguese and English and he did a great job including all of us in both the stories for the tour, but also any jokes or questions that were asked in the other language.

This bridge by our apartment is meant to evoke a fishing net.

#13 – Smallest house in town. One human, one cat habitate there.

Aveiro does ribbon bridges, rather than love locks, for people to show their dedication to each other. Much easier on the bridges.

This map of the city shows the various canals in aqua blue. There were much wider and widespread when harvesting salt was a major industry for the town.

Let’s discuss salt for a second. For a town that has relied on salt for generations, you’d think the apartment would have some for us to use when cooking, but nope. How about the restaurants? Salt on the tables? Nope!

The restaurant where we got franchesinha sandwiches did bring salt to the table as part of the oil and vinegar set for Z’s salad, but that was the first time I’ve seen a salt shaker in this country. Do they know something we don’t?

We did get a little packet as a souvenir from our tour.

After our boat tour, we had a delicious sushi lunch.

Surprise piggies as a gift from our waiter. So squishy.

A little rest, then off on our rented bikes to explore further out of town.

The rental place was fantastic. The person asked where we wanted to go, then entered in a route that was safer for biking to get us there.

For the most part we were on bike paths completely separate from cars, which is the ideal.

We rode by the salt flats and got to see flamingos. They were white since they don’t eat the diet here that turns them pink.

We rode through a small town and got to see Catholic devotion displayed at a private home.

In another display of the Portuguese kindness we’ve witnessed and benefited from over and over again, Buds and Yessa had biked ahead and were out of my sight. A Portuguese gentleman saw me looking around at a stop sign and came over to ask where I was trying to get to and to point out the two ways I could go. He then reassured me the way the other two had gone was a good way and we’d all be fine.

All of that in Portuguese. And it did reassure me.

The best part of the whole ride was when we got down by the docks. Buddie’s whole -hearted excitement at seeing a 4-masted steel ship, which is very unusual and very old, was a delight. I love to see and hear people talk about their passions.

It’s the same reason I love guided tours in new cities. I have so much to learn and I love to learn it from people who adore the topic. Yessa and I would not have known there was anything special about that ship when we biked by.

We also saw the astrological boats, although as a Leo I’m destined to be offended there wasn’t a boat for me.