Run Away!: Aveiro 2024, Part 1

We love our life here in Braga, but as with any move there are things we’ve had to adjust to. Having lived in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. for more than twenty years, we are used to a certain kind of climate and every year there’s a stretch in the summer here when we just start panting. If we were dogs we’d be looking for a porch to lie under. Lacking both porches and paws, however, we compensate for the worst heat waves by fleeing to somewhere much more comfortable for us. Last year we took advantage of a pet sitting opportunity in a cozy English village but this time we didn’t have that available. Instead, we made a return trip to one of our favorite little spots in Portugal – Aveiro. It’s on the coast, although technically not a beach town because of the quirks of geography. It usually has a gorgeous breeze coming in off the water and is just a few critical degrees cooler than in Braga.

The last time we were in Aveiro we knew essentially nothing about it and basically rummaged through its contents at random, simply enjoying the weather. This time we had a few targets in mind.

Given its quirky geography, Aveiro isn’t a beach town and doesn’t exactly vibe like one. It’s a hub for people who want to drive out to the beaches, but within the city what you’ve actually got are a) a lot of good restaurants, and b) a nice collection of cultural gee-gahs. For example, one of the many niche museums in Aveiro is dedicated to the Art Nouveau movement. It should be stated up front that calling this place a “museum” is definitely a “dress for the job you want” vibe. What we actually believe (albeit with no direct evidence) is that someone in Aveiro liked Art Nouveau tchotchkes and, when their time came, they bequeathed their home to the city to be this museum. Which, you know, fine. While small, it is a lovely space that manages to be carved up into several distinct exhibits. We started up top, where there were exemplar pieces of the period – 14 of them in total, including 8 pocket watch covers in one small display. That said, the walls were covered with highly informative descriptions of the pieces in both Portuguese and English. The pieces came from numerous cities throughout Europe, and we couldn’t help but notice that there was a local product from Aveiro – the painted-tile sign of a grocery store from the turn of the 20th Century. Have you seen those T-shirts for tourists that have some variant of “Rome! London! Paris! East Lansing!”? The vibe of this museum felt like that. But no harm done, many of the pieces were truly lovely.

On the first floor (that’s the second floor for you Americans (heh)) they had a movie running with English narration and Portuguese subtitles that mostly walked you through the intersection of the Art Nouveau movement and the broader ebb and flow of societal change in the early 1900s. It was actually very informative, and we took a few notes about future trips to some locations featured in the film that we’d like to take as a result. There were a few odd diversions that seemed out of place and were never fully explained. The best explanation that we could come up with is that the movie wasn’t produced specifically for this museum but was in fact an artifact of some exhibition elsewhere in the world and was then repurposed here; as a result, we are lacking some contextual clues from whatever exhibition the film originated in.

That evening we walked to the edge of town, to the Salt Pier for a bit of an unusual dining event. We and a family of six were picked up in a boat and taken on a quick ride to a local island, and an Ostraveiro Experience. At Ostraveiro they aquaculture oysters, cockles and clams, and it is possible to take guided tours of the production and the surroundings of the Ria da Aveiro. Access is only by boat, 2 min crossing, so you need to make reservations. They recently started hosting guests in their Boat Houses, which looks like a lot of fun.

We chose to just have dinner there, and were pleased in every way.

To start, they offered us a tuna pate (a very typical dish in Portugal), garlic bread, butter flavored with parsley, and local assorted breads. J. had the scallop gratin, and I had a dozen oysters. We shared a dish of mushrooms sauteed with samphire (a kind of seaweed). Chocolate mouse and berry cheesecake for dessert. Along with several glasses of wine and soda, the meal came to 80eu.

This is a place to come if you like seafood, bivalves in particular. Not for vegetarians.