Day 1: excursion

Hi everybody!

Today we went on an excursion through the beautiful surroundings of Aveiro. Of course this couldn't be done without our rental cars. Six of us went to Aveiro to get 3 Citroen C3's and the bigger Seat Ibiza. The boys were the lucky ones for the Seat, the other cars were for all the girls. (at least they are small enough to park ;))

At 11 we started the trip to the east. We passed the small island of Vincent, he will join us in about two weeks for his research, and drove towards the Rio Boco catchment. This is a pretty big catchment and we will work in four different groups on the chemistry, groundwater flow, water balance and the discharge of the area.
Today we had a closer look at the geology and the different landuses and water qualities in the aquifer systems. After a long day (until 20.00hr) we finally got home and ended up in the pizzeria at the corner where they have an internet connection. Tomorrow the real work will start.

Yesterday we could enjoy a real day off, relaxing on the beach was part of that :). At the end of the day it became somewhat cold, we are allready not used to low temperatures... Hopefully we will get used to low temperatures when we get back in Holland, otherwise there is no other option than staying here.
Barra (where our apartments are located) is a nice, small city at the west coast of Portugal, near Aveiro. The beach resembles that of the Netherlands, except for less people on the beach (which we all really like). Some of us brought surfing boards to enjoy the waves in a different way. Hopefully the waves will be somewhat better, otherwise we really have to make some kitesurf friends.

Up to now we really enjoy our stay here and we are looking forward to the next few weeks!

Now up for a good night sleep!

Ciao from Barra