Arouca

Once again we skipped an optional tour offered by OAT and opted for a day trip with a local company. Both trips were essentially going the same place, but the one we chose included a more active itinerary. A three mile hike in a river gorge is more than most OAT travelers wish to take on.

We had to walk about half a mile to meet our van. There were eight passengers (including us) with a driver guide. The group included two sisters from Belgium, a mother and adult daughter from the Netherlands, and a couple from Switzerland -- although neither was Swiss. The man was from Scotland and the woman from the Philippines, but they lived and worked in Basil. No other Americans.

Our first stop was the village of Arouca where we had a bathroom/coffee break. It's a cute village with a very large convent built by Queen Mafalda (who apparently was only a princess, and became a nun). 

We took a peak into the convent church. The nuns here became famous for making sweets that are called conventas because they came originally from the convent.

We drove on to a spot where we parked along a two-lane highway and walked into the woods. This was not what we were expecting, but after a walk of about a quarter mile we reached our destination: The Arouca 516 suspension bridge.

Suspended 175 meters above River Paiva, in the UNESCO Arouca Geopark (nature preserve) the Arouca is 516 meters long (hence the name). It is a pedestrian only bridge connecting two parts of the park across the Paiva gorge.

The bridge swings a bit, which makes for an exciting walk. But it's not as bad as many smaller such bridges we've been on. In our case, it was something of a bridge to nowhere. Nothing we were doing the rest of the day was on the far side. So after crossing it, we turned around and crossed back.

After the bridge, we started down the cascada, a series of wooden stairways down the side of the gorge. This is the beginning of the 5 kilometer (3 mile) walk through the gorge. It was a warm day, but the views were worth the trek.

By lunchtime we had earned our meal, so the van took us back to Arouca village for a traditional Portuguese meal of tiny fish, as well as pork, with rice and "green wine" (a white wine from freshly picked grapes that has had very little time to ferment, and thus has a fairly low alcohol content).

For dessert, we were served several of the local conventas. However, they now come from a commercial bakery and no longer from the convent.

In the afternoon we drove to Costa Nova. Until fairly recently this was a poor fishing village on a narrow strip of land between the sea and a salt water lagoon. Now it's being gentrified into a trendy and expensive location for vacation homes.

The fishermen painted their homes in black and white vertical stripes so that they could be easily spotted from sea on foggy days. The black stripes have been replaced by colorful ones, and no poor fisherman can afford to live here anymore.

Next stop with the town of Aveiro, which has been called "The Venice of Portugal." The old town is actually below sea level and crisscrossed by saltwater canals. Tourist boats on the canals have been made to look like the gondolas of Venice.

We were pretty tired by the time we got to Aveiro, so spent most of our time here sitting at a sidewalk cafe, nursing a beer.

Back in Porto, we met up at the hotel with our OAT group for an excellent evening meal at a local restaurant. Then we crashed for the night.