Aveiro, and Jazz in Porto

Today we got up a bit early, had breakfast, and left at 8:30 to buy tickets at Sao Bento train station and catch the 10:20 train for Aveiro, touted as the Venice of Portugal. The skies were dark and cloudy, but the forecast was better for Aveiro than for our other choice, Braga, to the north, so we decided to go south to Aveiro. The train ride took 1 hour and 20 minutes. There were a few raindrops, and a few sun breaks while we were there.

The sun was peeking out of the clouds, so we took a ride on a canal boat for 10 euros each, and saw the whole canal system and several historic or interesting buildings. There were large salt marshes on the edge of town, and salt production had been a big part of the economy here in past years. Our guide explained that lovers tie ribbons on the bridges instead of the locks people used to attach, which caused problems on the bridges here as well as in Paris, where they've been outlawed.

The town of Aveiro, seen from the train station

A fun sculpture along the banks of the canal

Ribbons tied to the bridge by lovers

I had read somewhere that the sidewalks are decorated with unique designs and patterns in the cobblestones, and we noticed those all over town.







We ate lunch at the cafe of the Art Museum, and all felt we had a good meal. My prawns in garlic were great. Six big prawns sauteed in butter with roasted garlic and served with a basket of bread for dipping. That, with a diet Coke was 10,50 euros. The others all had sandwiches with meat and cheese.

The entry to the Art Museum Cafe

Giant prawns in garlic butter

Janet ordered an ovos moles, which is a specialty of Aveiro - an egg yolk and sugar filling in a light pastry crust, the crust being very similar to a communion wafer. We all had a taste of it, but no one felt the need to have more.



On the way back through town we picked up lattes for some, and pastries for some. I got a latte for 1,20 euros, and a custard tart for 1 euro. Gail had 2 gelato cones, at 2 different shops on our short walk back to the station. She'll never live that down! We all agreed that Aveiro was nothing like Venice, aside from the fact that it had a canal going through town, but not a bad place to visit.

The train back into town got us to Sao Bento, where we switched to the Metro and got to our Casa da Musica stop at about 5:30. Our plan was to pick up a few pizzas on our way home, but the pizza place didn't open until 7:30, so we ate sandwiches at home, made with the fresh buns Nancy picked up on the way.

We hustled over to Casa da Musica to be there for the 8:00 jazz concert, only to discover it didn't start until 9.
The concert was a huge disappoint. The opening act was a jazz/rock band from Istanbul that just about blasted us all out of our seats. We stuck around because we were sure the jazz would be good. The group was The Art Ensemble of Chicago, started 50 years ago, which still had 2 of the original members. They played very avante garde, dissonant music that we kept thinking would get better, but it never did. Some people walked out during the concert, but others, very surprisingly, applauded energetically at the end. Nancy felt bad for suggesting we go to the concert, but the rest of us assured her we didn't hold her responsible. We'll all remember the evening as memorable!

At intermission, the stage is set up for the jazz concert