Day 10: Oveiro to Praia de Mira

March 11, 2023

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Dodie David, the cyclist we met at the ferry yesterday, had booked into the same downtown Oveiro hotel as us. So we got to see him one last time, in the breakfast room. Although he is going in the same direction as we are, he is about twice as fast. Barring some tortoise and hare event, like he stops somewhere for a few days, we are unlikely to see him again. Still, it was much fun to meet and talk to another long distance cyclist.

Our goodbye hug from David is slightly at arm's length, to avoid squashing Dodie's rib.

Before carrying on to the South, we did a spin around the downtown part of Oveiro. It was as charming today as yesterday, though it did appear to us that the really neat old town portion is fairly limited.

We headed down some random streets, like this one

Here is a church we bumped in to. We have no idea if this is in any way famous or important, but we liked it.

The side walls in the church, like most things in town, we tile covered, while the front featured the gold tones we found in the Porto cathedral. Mary seems to star in this church. Didn't see Jesus anywhere!

We continued to just cruise around some random downtown streets.

Although I am the one usually on the lookout for bakeries, Dodie was the champion this day. Over on the left is a small sign advertising Ovos Moles de Aveiro. Dodie had read about this in a guidebook (like the cake in Ovar). It's the town specialty, comprising an egg shaped slightly crispy shell filled with an egg based sugary creme. It's kind of the Cadbury's Creme Egg of Portugal.

Dodie was not shy about going through the small door, and buy two eggs from the obviously Ma and Pa operation. Later we found some bigger Ovos bakeries, but we were happy with this one.

While I waited for Dodie at the bakery, I could observe the surrounding buildings. They were all tile covered, like the one below. This style is pervasive here, but surely unique to this country.

We passed back out to a canal and back in some side streets, all in the downtown area.

In our wandering we spotted some more Ovos bakeries. We only noted that they were there, and did not do any further research. For all we know, then, there are flavours and sizes other than what we got. We'll have to come back to check that out!

There are really a lot of operators offering tours in the classic boats.

Here is a different take on the "love lock" bridge idea. The ribbons used here are more economical of space, but there seems to be a lot of Portuguese lovers!

Lots of ribbons. I think they each have an expression of love on them.

Here is a wider view of 'Dodie's" language school from yesterday.

Feeling that we got the main idea of the town from our 1/2 hour spin around, we pedaled over to the nearby salt flats. Salt production is a much touted activity here, but the area involved was surprisingly small. And since it is early in the season, the various "tanks" are just filled with plain sea water - no salt to be seen.

The salt flats did not look so exciting at this point.

Evidence that they do have salt here at the right time of year.

It was time to leave town and continue down EV1, but this was not totally simple. The entrance to town has a tangle of high speed road, and construction, and though as we found yesterday there are ways for bikes to go, they are not obvious. This had us circling and scouting for a fair time, until at last we were on our way.

Our way, as it turned out, was straight down the coast. But this did not mean taking in any exciting surf, beach bars, condo development, towns, tide pools, or anything like that. Rather, the route took the inland side of a long inlet parallel to the coast, and it was a slightly bumpy dirt road to boot. On this road we saw basically nothing. There was meadow on one side and tidal flat on the other. After a time we, or rather Dodie's ribs, got tired f the bumpy ride, and shifted inland one road further. There we got a bit of town life, but again nothing very exciting. The photos below represent our total achievement of seeing anything of interest. Things are clearly getting tough when you put in a pair of Mallard ducks, and one or more blurry "little brown birds"!

This fellow was actively gathering something in the tidal flat. He was shifting seaweed and collecting ---what?

A quick draw shot of a fast moving little bird. Maybe it was captured enough for an ID by our bird experts?

From the tail, we guess this to be a swallow.

There was a large acreage of hoop houses like this.

Telephoto revealed the houses to be full of strawberries.

The town of Praia da Vagueira, on the other side of the inlet. The surf is on the far side of the town.

We arrived at our stop for the night, "Grandma's Guesthouse", which is basically a small hostel. Although the room and the beds are small, it does have all we need, including a kitchen with kettle. Kettles are remaining an issue for us. For Mexico we chose not to bring one, and had to scramble a lot for hot water for coffee and hot chocolate. We have a compact beauty of a kettle in Leipzig, but to bring to Portugal we bought another one, at Walmart back home. Most appliances these days are spec'd for 240 as well as 120 volts, and we didn't check this one. But it turned out to be 120 V only. When we plugged it in here, the water boiled in 30 seconds! If you remember your electrical formulas, like I=E/R, you see that at 240 volts it is drawing twice the power it should. It's a wonder it did not blow the circuit where we plugged it in. We need to keep a lookout for a skinny, 1 litre, 240 volt model.

Dodie is struggling a bit now with the rib, and is taking a lot of pain killer. It could be that today and tomorrow are the worst days. She might be getting a cold too, and I helpfully chipped in that Tylenol cold tablets have pain reliever, so she could economize by taking those, to reduce headache, rib ache, stuffy nose, and maybe a whole lot of other ailments. Surprisingly, my medical contribution did not seem to resonate with the patient!

p.s. We very much appreciate the comments that readers are putting in the blog (121 so far, but including our responses). Dodie likes to read and respond, especially if up in the night, but she wanted to say she might be a little slow now, while high on .. Night time Tylenol Cold?

Today's ride: 41 km (25 miles)
Total: 160 km (99 miles)

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Brent IrvineYou followed me to Grandma's Guesthouse, too! Another wonderful place. Did you make it to Restaurant Lila? And up to meander the vast sandy beach?
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1 year ago

Suzanne GibsonHope the worst days are past for Dodie! I think better weather is coming your way, too.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Brent IrvineGlad we are sticking with tradition, in your footsteps. In general we do not get meals at restaurants, but rather buy food in grocery stores. As for a meander on the beach....not feeling good enough today for more than food and bed.
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1 year ago

Andrea BrownWe carry one of these tiny immersion heaters: https://www.wholeearthprovision.com/shop/lewis-n-clark-immersion-heater-76789. Maybe you'll spot one in a market somewhere. They really work well, but you MUST remember to have it IN the water while it's plugged in. If you take it out while plugged in, it's toast. Ask us how we learned this. Now that we've become properly trained, it heats up a cup of water in less than three minutes, and weighs nothing. A great piece of kit.
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1 year ago

Scott AndersonTo Andrea BrownHey, I’d forgotten about these. My first wife and I took one with us when we went to England and France about 50 years ago.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Andrea BrownWe also used to have one. Sad story there too. Dodie found a small inexpensive electric kettle with European power, so all is now well.
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1 year ago

Nic RoetsHeaters follow Ohm's law: V=IR. Double the Volts and you double the Ampere. Now Power=VI, so it will be 4 times as large!
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Nic RoetsSteve says yeah, correct. Dodie says huh?
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1 year ago