March 16, 2011
We slept during most of the 10 hours in transit as our economy plus upgraded seating was pretty comfortable. We arrived in Frankfurt, Gremany at 6am.
How's this for attention grabbing German advertising at the Frankfurt airport?
First thing on tap, after getting off the plane, was a German "breakfast of champions": Wurst, Pickle, mustard, and a roll. Darrell instinctively made for a "Wurst Cart" to get us this early morning meal. The wurst was delicious! During our trip to Chile in 2009 the goal was to see how many Pisco sours we could have during the trip. We ended up with 93. Looks like Darrell has set the bar. We may have to see how many hot dogs we can eat in 10 days. We're already at 9 with 2 flights left to go.
After 4 flights, three layovers, and 23 hrs 50 min travel time...we've made it to Palermo! The approach was a little dicey. There were major cross winds and the pilot had to wrestle through, but got us down safely. Not so comforting to feel the jet being pushed sideweays about 1000 feet about the water.
Now it's cocktail time at the hotel...
We had the Grand Hotel et des Palmes house special made with fresh squeezed Sicilian Mandarins and Spumante. It was like a Sicilian Mimosa...so delicious and refreshing.
Darrell on the other house special cocktail.
After cocktails it was time for the Winett Taste & Trade welcome reception for the producers in Sicily and the buyers from North America. They did a tasting of wines presented by the attending producers and provided a wonderful banquet selection of local fare. We met buyers from California, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Hong Kong, and Canada.
One of the highlights of the tasting was this Mandarin liquor, which is made just like Limoncello, only with Sicilian Mandarins. The scent and flavor were exceptional! Something you may soon see at Corti Brothers.
