Thick fog and swirling mist greeted us this morning so we bundled up for what looked to be a chilly ride, at least for a while. The forecast was for warm sunshine, but it wasn't working out that way. But with a strong tailwind and mostly pancake flat roads (after a few initial small bumps), our relatively short ride to Aveiro promised to be fairly quick.
This might be our easiest day. But we've earned it. We ride to a ferry across the Aviero lagoon, then ride a short distance into the city. Here's the route to the ferry:
And from the ferry to the town:
The mist gave way to broken sunshine within the first hour of riding. And we found our very first bike path in Portugal. What a treat! We used it with great pleasure.
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| The first bike path we've found in Portugal |
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| Our route followed a long lagoon toward Sao Jacinto, where we were to pick up the ferry |
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| Lots of fishing and musseling along this bay |
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| The bike path ended rather abruptly but we were thankful for the bit we had |
We made it to Sao Jacinto in time for the scheduled ferry at 12:30. Things looked pretty quiet at the ferry terminal, so we asked around and everyone said "Oh, the ferry is broken. You need to go back to the bridge." The bridge was about 30 km back up the road. Crap.
But then we met a guy who said that maybe one of the smaller boats would take us and our bike across the bay. After some haggling, we had a deal and loaded the bike and all our crap onto a small boat along with one other girl with a bike, and we were off! Cool.
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| The broken ferry |
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| The boat that gave us a ride |
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| Offloading the bike on the other side |
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| They are actually called "Happy Houses" |
The ride from the ferry landing on the other side to town was short and after getting lost about 5 times we made it to our guest house. The hosts helped us take the bike and all our stuff upstairs and were so helpful it was humbling. What else to do but have coffee and a long conversation about our bike trip, life, politics and families? The hosts are from South Africa and have been in Aveiro for about 2 years. South Africa was not safe for them any longer. They have three wonderful kids, 2 boys maybe 18 and 17 and a daughter maybe 15. The
y all jumped into our conversation and after a while we were having a great debate about all sorts of important stuff. But then football practice called the boys away and the girl had homework.
We wandered around town, past the fish stalls and through small streets, and took a very touristy ride on a boat that is unique to the area and winds its way through the canals. I wanted to learn about the history of the boats -- they are pretty unique, but alas, information about shopping was all that was on offer.
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| Sardines |
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| Tuna |
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| Eel |
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| They look akin to Venetian gondolas but have a much longer history |
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| Our cheesy tour guide |
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| Approaching a bridge |
The sardines at the fish market gave us an appetite for the same for dinner. Our hosts back at the guest house made a few phone calls and set us up at a restaurant. They were waiting for us and we had a huge plate of grilled sardines and potatoes. It was super good -- a bit messy, but they supplied us with bibs and towels to handle the mess.
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| Grilled sardines, potatoes and peppers |
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| They are delicious! |
A nice finish to another pleasant day, made especially pleasant by the luck we had with the alternate ferry, the good riding, and most of all, meeting a wonderful South African - now Portuguese family.
Until tomorrow.
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