Thread by @H_Y_L

I just spent a giddy hour cycling around #Aveiro, #Portugal. Soooo nice to ride again after a week of baltering around Porto. Get this: the bike was free! Hooray for #Buga & Bik&Vento for storing my pack & telling me about Buga! (bikvento.pt) #yegbike #opobike

So, @bestqualitycrab asked me to fetch her a little something from #Aveiro, whilst I'm in Portugal.

A fantastic multilingual entrepreneurial woman at the train station charged me €3 to store my pack; gave me a wifi code, and told me about #Aveiro's #freebike program. A 10 minute stroll from the station and in 3 minutes, I had a bike to spin around on. Free!! #yegbike #opobike

So what did I get to see on my #Buga bike? #Aveiro is on an estuary, so I was hoping to spot #flamingos. No such luck, but I did see this vista:

Sea salt is important to #Aveiro's economy & history. When lecturing in #Pondicherry, I took students to a salt harvesting village, so I was interested in comparing the infrastructure between India & Portugal. Couldn't have walked there in time, but no prob w/ my #buga. #opobike

#Aveiro is a lovely city, with great design aesthetics, combining 16th - 18thC with more contemporary architecture, all built around a canal system that also makes for sweet bike paths.

More examples of the #Aveiro I wouldn't have seen without my free #Buga bike:
#opobike #yegbike

#Aveiro has #public_art & cool #bookshops:

#opobike #Buga

They call it "the Venice of Portugal", but lots of cities depended on canals to move goods through the urban space. Amsterdam, Manchester & Liverpool for example. But #Aveiro has embraced the Venetian comparison:

The bike was a dream to ride. Well maintained, two gears, handle shifter and brake, smoith running, even on cobblestones. And here are the guys who make #Aveiro's free #Buga bikes a reality:

Thanks @bestqualitycrab for the incentive. Cruising around #Aveiro on this sweet bike made me so happy!