On the Road to Porto: Discovering Óbidos, Aveiro, & Costa Nova

Driving from Lisbon to Porto, we hugged Costa de Prata, the Silver Coast, taking in the beaches and towns, with a few overnight stops for castles and canal tours. We thoroughly loved experiencing these smaller gems throughout the Costa de Prata.

Óbidos

The first stop on our drive, the walled town of Óbidos is a medieval dream come true. Towering at the end of the walled city, the castle, Castelo de Óbidos, is the heart of this colorful town.

The walls of the city are painted brightly blue and yellow, and flowers bloom everywhere. Discovering each alleyway and little street leads to shops, restaurants, or stairs up to the city walls, which we climbed around (some spots being a little more frightening than others).

Two other interesting sites are a 16th century aqueduct, the Acueducto de Óbidos, and the entrance into the walled city, Porta da Senhora da Piedade (Porta da Vila).

For dinner one night we dined inside the historic Obidos Castle, at Pousada Castelo Obidos, which was a very memorable meal. The castle is also a hotel. Another local food tradition is “ginja de Óbidos,” or “ginjinha”. This cherry liqueur is served in a chocolate cup and was created by a friar as a means to utilize the local ginja cherries with an appealing drink.

Aveiro

Stop number 2.

Since the middle ages, Aveiro has been vital in sea trading and salt and seaweed harvesting. It has an extensive canal system, and is most famous for its painted boats, the barcos moliceiros. These boats were used to collect the seaweed, and now you can take a canal tour on them.

Many of the the moliceiros are decorated with, ahem, questionable, paintings. The more traditional boats simply show scenes of local life. Others, aimed to attract a tourist crowd, often show on one side a religious scene, and on the other something much more racy, typically women in some sort of compromised position. There’s a picture below of my daughter’s shocked look when seeing them :).

Taking a boat ride in the moliceiros was a great way to spend a morning, although I found it a bit of a stretch to consider Aveiro the “Portuguese Venice”, as is stated in many guide books. Still, a worthwhile stop between Lisbon and Porto if for nothing more than a laugh and an eye roll at some of the paintings on these boats. 

Costa Nova

Lastly, we took a short detour on the way to Porto to eat lunch in picturesque Costa Nova. Tiny but memorable, Costa Nova is a seaside resort most well known for its rows of brightly striped houses. Originally these palheiros, which translates to haystack from Portuguese, were used by fishermen to store fishing nets. Now people live in them, and the village itself is completely charming, not to mention so close to lovely beaches and natural areas. This is one spot I can’t wait to go back to and explore some more.

Our lunch here was one of my favorite meals from our entire trip, we sat outside on the tiny patio of Praia do Tubarão, and simply marveled over the seafood rice stew. I dream still about it.

Continuing to pretend to house shop.

Red striped houses from miniature to large.