Aveiro: Little City of Bridges

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After the grand snooze, it was up and at 'em and on the road to Aveiro. This is another little fishing village that has lent
itself to tourist pursuits. Aveiro is a city of canals and bridges, waters plied by colourful boats (barques) and home to salieneras. Salienaras are facilities where salt is extracted from ocean water and then turned into a vast variety of products, some for munching and some for scrubbing.

Portuguese people have a great love of salt. It has been used since olden days to preserve cod and many varieties are produced for use on the table. There is the usual bleached white type, but also brown salts, salts flecked with black,grey salt and lovely coarse, chunky salts. When you begin to explore the world of salt, it can become something of an obsession for a time.

The other passion of the Portuguese is bridges. In the early days of the twentieth century when Portugal was striving to modernize, engineers from across Europe were commissioned to build spectacular bridges. Porto alone has three spanning the River Douro, all within sight of one another. Not to be outdone, Aveiro has its own array of spans, and the best way to explore these little beauties is to take a boat tour on one of the aforementioned barques.

As much as anything,I think the kids enjoyed watching the fish dart about beneath our vessel. But, as always, the tour was very informative. A BIT OF A NOTE HERE: I held a typical prejudice against guided tours. Something about it lessening the quality of travel and how only lazy people employ the service of professionals. This trip has changed my opinion in this regard.Especially when one is travelling with children, tour buses,boats,trolleys and whatever else offer not only more local info than you could ever garner on your own, but it keeps the wee tykes busy like nothing else.

Back to the bridges: Aveiro has several terrific little bridges, but the one that impressed me most was a circular style that allowed strollers to do a loop de loop over the waters before heading in whichever direction they had intended originally. Very inventive. Part of the love for clever design may come from the influence of great designers, like a young
Monsieur Eiffel, who graced the city with a very distinctive fish market.

Before we leave the sea, I'd like to tell you about an interesting little project that has involved us. There is a chiropractor
in Penticton by the name of Dr. Konanz. He is a nice fellow and an interesting man. He has an unusual collection, a collection of sand from various places around the globe. He has asked us to bring some back from Portugal, and if you are reading this, dear sir, I am pleased to inform you that we have acquired two samples : some thick, granular stuff from Porto and some fine, powdery sand from the dunes of Vagos.
By Kevin

Maria-

Aveiro dates back at least to the 10th century when it was known by its first Latin name of Alavarium, literally, "a gathering place or preserve of birds." The Moors invaded and then held it until the 11th century, after which it became popular with Portuguese royalty. In the winter of 1575, a terrible storm closed the entrance to its port, ending a thriving trade in metals and tiles. The same storm also created a reef barrier at the Atlantic Ocean.
The city is also famous for its production of salt and for its seaweed harvest, which is used for fertilizer in the area.
Famous people;The famous explorer João Afonso was born in Aveiro. He was the first European to visit the region of Benin in Nigeria and named the river located there, the Rio Fermoso. He helped to build a fort in Mina. Unfortunately, never came back to Portugal; he died in the region and is credited for bringing to Lisbon the first pepper that ever came out of those parts. He was also credited as one of the discoverers of the Newfoundland fisheries.
The boats are called molicaros and where used for the seaweed harvest in times past today not so much.
Now let's continue with the tour of the city.
Maria

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Photos

Photo 3
These boats were used for seaweed collection
and then the seaweed used for fertalizer