Day 3 - I loathe the bus

After I planned this trip and booked everything I realized that I might have planned one too many days in Porto so we decided to have an excursion to a town near the sea called Aveiro. Everyone loves a European train trip and though this train ride wasn't quite Amtrak from Philadelphia to Washington DC, it wasn't far behind.  The town is described as the Venice of Portugal.  In point of fact, it is not the Venice of anywhere but they do have canals (rather large exposed canals and colorful boats which you can take.  We demurred.  

We walked around for about half an hour before we decided to take the bus out to the beach at a town called Costa Nova.  It is a small little village on the sea with no green spaces or trees or respite from the sun.  It is very colorful however.  The buildings are traditionally striped.

This house had sea shells somehow glued to the walls and painted.

There was no one in the water as it was very cold but also it's very rough and seemed to get very deep very quickly.  We brought suits but the idea of being sandy and damp on our hour long bus ride and hour long train trip home didn't seem prudent.

We did stop for lunch and had a bottle of Vinho Verde and seafood soup...

Here is a "salad" and octopus and potatoes.  I must say, the octopus has been fantastic.  I've always liked it but it's so spectacular here I would eat it every day.

The bus was quite late and there was nowhere to sit and wait and this was our general feeling as we got on.

The train ride home was much lovelier but we were both really tired and slept off and on.  We had booked a beautiful dinner at a restaurant called Camafeu.

We weren't allowed to sit at the window table because it was booked.  It remained empty the whole time we were there.

Goat cheese ravioli with pears and almonds.

Salmon tartare

Duck lasagna

Pig cheek with sweet potatoes and mushrooms and chestnuts.  There is a small smear of raspberry.

We took a long meandering walk home through some streets we hadn't walked down before and a few we had.  As dirty and ragged as it can look during the day, it really is spectacular at night.  

It was yet another wonderful day in Porto.  I really do like it here and wouldn't mind spending more time there.  We are sad to leave but excited to get out into the country.  Especially as the temperatures are about to get above 100 degrees.