Aveiro

 I was culling out material from my phone and came across a bunch of pictures from last June's trip to Portugal that I never did anything with (for who knows what reason - probably the demands of blogging about all of last year's reading). Anyway, I came across some nice shots of a lovely day that I spent, taking the long way from Coimbra back to Lisbon. Clearly, that's not a straight shot, but on each trip to Portugal I want to cover different corners of that marvelous country. It's kind of painful to think of it now, mainly because Sicily has taken center-stage in our plans, at least for the next few years. Still, even if we end of settling in Sicily forever, I'm sure we'll make it back to Portugal. Aveiro is often portrayed as Portugal's Venice because of its canals, although they are more artificial and much newer than their much more famous cousins in northern Italy. Still, it's a beautiful place and I could definitely see it as a possible relocation alternative, although I suspect it must get awfully crowded during the high tourist season.

The canal boats are called barcos moliceiros, which are modelled on the traditional boats used to harvest seaweed.

The canals come together as part of a larger, Venice-like (or Venice-light) lagoon.

It's a very charming town, and I'm definitely hoping to return.