Today we went to Aveira , a town with 3 canals and some large gondolas (old seaweed boats). This is why they claim to be similar to Venice, fortunately they say it with a little laugh. Although it's nothing like Venice it was a nice town to have a stroll round for half a day and we succumbed to the boat ride too.

Apparently there are two culinary specialities in Aveira, one is Ovos Moles which is eggs with sugar a little like custard and the other is Tripa which we were told was tripe and is yummy but when it was described to us it turns out that it’s actually crepes filled with hot chocolate which clearly is very different to our original thoughts!!

Afterwards at the suggestion of our boat tour guide we went off to Praia da Barra and Costa Nova for a sneaky look . We’re pleased we did, both are nice and as long as the weather holds we’re going to stay for a couple of days for our next adventures.

Today was the day our new bikes finally came out for a proper ride. Penny had declared the cycle path flat enough for her to cope with the 12km test run to Praia da Barra. It was a lovely ride along the side of the river and sea and a nice but windy 4km walk down the pier and prom in Barra which meant we’d done enough exercise to test all the treats in the local pasteleria, yum yum yum!!