Aveiro

A day of canals, convent museum and Costa Nova

See Aveiro in a day on foot: arrive by train, admire the tiled old station, walk Avenida Lourenço Peixinho to the Rotunda das Pontes and take a morning moliceiro boat round the canals. Then see the Art Nouveau fronts and the Museu de Aveiro in the former Convento de Jesus, closed on Mondays.

Come in by train and spend a minute on the tiled facade of the old station before walking down Avenida Lourenço Peixinho to the Rotunda das Pontes. Board a moliceiro there for a loop of the canals while the morning is still quiet, then look up at the Art Nouveau fronts along the main canal and step into the small museum given over to the style. Walk south to the cathedral and the Museu de Aveiro, housed in the former Convento de Jesus (closed on Mondays).

Lunch in the lanes between the Bairro Antigo and the fish market, and leave room for ovos moles. In the afternoon, hire a bike or catch the bus to Costa Nova: the striped houses face the lagoon, and the Atlantic beach is a short walk over the dune. Ride on to Praia da Barra for the lighthouse if there is time. Back in town, eat near the Mercado do Peixe and finish with a drink in the Praça do Peixe, where the bars stay open into the small hours.

Salt pans and the Santo André trawler on the Ria de Aveiro

Give the Ria de Aveiro lagoon half a day beyond the canals. Working salt pans sit on the edge of the centre, the former cod trawler Santo André is a museum ship at Jardim Oudinot near the harbour, and ferries cross the lagoon mouth to São Jacinto. Bikes and buses reach the beaches at Barra and Costa Nova.

The Ria de Aveiro is the reason the town exists, and it deserves half a day beyond the canals. On the edge of the centre, a few salt pans still work the old way, with white crystals raked from shallow pools in the summer heat. Follow the harbour road towards the sea and you reach the Jardim Oudinot, where the Santo André, a former cod trawler, is moored as a museum ship. The same shore has the old fort, the Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes chapel and a few seafood places that fill up at the end of a beach day.

Ferries cross the lagoon mouth to São Jacinto, a fishing village on the north shore with protected dunes behind it. Surfers stay south: Barra and Costa Nova both have shops renting boards and wetsuits, while the flat lagoon water suits windsurfing and kitesurfing. In Ílhavo, which supplied crews to the cod fleet for generations, the Vista Alegre porcelain factory has been working since the early 1800s and runs guided tours.

Ovos moles and the fish market quarter

Buy ovos moles, Aveiro's egg-yolk and sugar paste sealed in wafers shaped like shells, fish and barrels, sold loose or in small painted wooden barrels. Pão de ló, a light sponge, is the other local bake. For savoury food, grilled fish and eel caldeirada are served between the Bairro Antigo and the Mercado do Peixe.

Aveiro takes its sugar seriously. Ovos moles are the signature: egg yolk cooked slowly with sugar into a glossy paste, then sealed inside thin wafers pressed into shells, fish and barrels that echo the lagoon. Pastelarias across the centre sell them loose or packed in small painted wooden barrels, the obvious thing to carry home. Pão de ló, a light and eggy sponge, is the other local bake, sold by the slice in most cake shops.

For savoury food, head to the streets between the Bairro Antigo and the Mercado do Peixe. Small restaurants there grill the day's fish and serve lagoon eels in a rich caldeirada stew, and the square itself becomes the town's nightlife hub after dinner. For seafood with sand still on your feet, eat at Barra or Costa Nova, where beachfront places cook the catch simply. On a tight budget, the food courts in the Forum and Glicínias shopping centres are quick and cheap, if forgettable.