White storks in Northern Portugal

I decided to dodge around the Portuguese rail strikes, today is their last day after almost 2 months, and I headed off to Aveiro. The first couple of trains were cancelled and I had to wait until 11am when 3 lots of passengers made a dash for seats. It stopped 24 times before we reached Aveiro sometime around 12.30 only 25 miles away. Well worth the trip, the city is built around a series of canals which are navigated by colourful barcos moliceiros originally used to transport salt and sea wood, the extra.

I could stayed longer and I think had I known how interesting it was I might have made an overnight stop. The original station is even more impressive than Saõ Bento, the second extra. On the way home on a very more crowded train I spotted several stork nests, occupied. One of the many delights of travelling solo is that by you can be spontaneous so I got off the train at Cacia and walked back a kilometre and a bit to where I’d seen from the train. I got a great view and watched them for ages.

By the time I’d returned to the station I only had a twenty minute before a train arrived, much less busy this time and I got a seat all the way back to Porto.