Breakfast at the Montebello Vista Alegre hotel
Breakfast this morning was in corona style. There were two buffets, one for the drinks and one for the food. We were not allowed to take anything ourselves, but we could just ask what we liked. We had booked the time slot the day before since the number of places in the restaurant were limited for each of the available timeframes.
I took something that resembled apricot jam for my mini pancakes. However, it turned out to be sugared egg yolks which they use in the local specialty “ovos moles”. I didn’t think it tasted bad, but it was super sweet!
Aveiro, Moliceiros & Ovos Moles
Then we set course for Aveiro, set along the Ria de Aveiro lagoon. Here we could go on the water with boats like in Venice. They were called ‘Moliceiros’. It was a pity, but the weather did not allow for it. It was already quite hot and the sun was burning, so not the best moment to go for a boat ride.
Aveiro was best known for its azulejos, the blue tiles on the walls, as well as for its ovos moles (a sweet delicacy). A walk through the city was certainly the best way to discover the beautiful facades throughout the city.
As many cities in Portugal, we found here also many religious buildings, often very beautifully decorated from the outside as well as the inside. We had heard that the station was stunning but it was just being renovated so I had to do a lot of tricks for getting a so so picture of it.
While strolling through the city and taking many pictures, we passed by the Mexican restaurant that we had discovered through Tripadvisor when we were still at home. We loved Mexican food and it would be fantastic if we could have dinner here tonight. The door was open, so we entered to check if we could make a reservation and we were lucky! There was still a table for us.
Then we continued our stroll through Aveiro and stopped for some tapas before returning to the car.
Before we drove to Costa Nova for another visit, we stopped at the salt fields for some pictures. The salt could be found in several shops around the city.
Return visit Costa Nova
It was very difficult to find a parking place in Costa Nova, it seemed that everyone had the same idea. After several rounds of the city, we finally secured a spot. We walked around and visited the local fish market. Such a pity that we did not have this type of markets where we live !
On the way back to the hotel we drove to Barra, to get a picture of the lighthouse. It was also super busy there, so we decided not to stay.
Visit of the Vista Alegre Factory site
Back at the hotel, we visited the porcelain museum and the outlet. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for our bags), we did not find anything to our liking. However, we were very lucky because the chapel of the Vista Alegre factory was only open for fifteen minutes a day. And guess ??? We were just in time for the 5pm visit.
Night out in Aveiro
Then we started to get ready for our evening out in Aveiro. It felt a bit strange to eat Mexican in Portugal but a good Mexican restaurant (Poco Loco) with real tortillas is hard to find… The food was super tasty! There was no ceviche, one of our favourite dishes, but it did not matter too much since all the other choices that we had made were spot on.
In the restaurant we got little paper bags to store our face masks during dinner. First time that we experience that ! What a service. When the waiter took our order he said we had ordered too much. But I knew exactly how big my stomach was :-), so we tried all the dishes that we had selected. It was such a nice ending of our evening.
