Aveiro, a tiny coastal village in central Portugal, is called the Venice of Portugal, for some reason. It has a few canals running through the city, but is above sea level and not likely to be flooded into extinction any time soon. I have never been to Venice, but I have to assume it is far more beautiful.
We took the train from Porto to Aveiro, which is a pleasant little 45 minute ride along the Atlantic coast. Unfortunately, we spent less than 12 hours in town, and I was working about half of that time, so what I know about Aveiro can fill two or three paragraphs.
Aveiro is not a crowded town, at least not in October. The largest crowd we saw on Aveiro day was at the Porto train station. Porto is not nearly as big as Barcelona, but there were more people milling about the station than I would have expected. The Porto train station is a popular tourist site, mostly for the murals on the ceiling, but once you pass the lobby, the crowds thin out. There were hundreds of people in the station, but almost no one waiting for our train.
Aveiro is famous for salt, I have been told. Everywhere we went, people were selling salt. I never bought any because salt should cost less than 20 euros for a 4 ounce bottle. Salt in different colors and mixed with herbs and spices does not impress me much. The ceramic trinkets and knick knacks were more impressive, but I generally don't buy souvenirs if they are only going to sit on a shelf and never do anything.
Aveiro also has colored boats that take people around the canals, but I never went on one.
During my time in Porto, several people said nice things about Aveiro. I'm sure there is something to it that I missed, but I was simply not there long enough.
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No hate, please. There's enough of that in the world already.