We have been to Italy at least five times, but had never spent any time in Sicily (except for a one day visit when we were on a cruise in 1995). Thus, in 2020 we had planned a trip to explore Sicily in a more in-depth way. And since we were in the neighborhood we  planned to also visit the nearby country of Malta, thus adding it to my “Countries Visited” list. Well, we all know what happened.  Naively, we moved the trip to 2021, again a no-go, so it became “2022 or bust”!  The good news is that the cost of our trip has decreased because the Euro has dropped 15% since we first made our reservations. Our travel companions will once again be my brother, Gerry and wife, Sue. Luckily he has the same travel bug that I have contracted and we enjoy their company.

Lately we have traveled with smaller group tours and thus chose to go with Secret Italia (based out of Malta) who I discovered when searching the internet for companies that had extensive experience and presence in Sicily/Malta. It will be our first experience with them but previous travelers speak highly of them.

Getting to Palermo from Seattle would have taken 3 flights so I opted to break up the flight by spending the night in Frankfurt before traveling to Palermo, Sicily, our first stop on the tour. It will also allow our bodies to adjust somewhat to the new time zone before we begin touring. I use several glasses of wine with dinner to help me sleep on the plane but Yvonne always has problems getting any decent hours of sleep on the plane so this extra layover will help her catch up on the missed sleep.

We chose to fly Condor Airlines from Seattle to Frankfurt because we have flown them before, and their prices were much better than the competition. There are also several Marriott hotels right at the airport terminal so it is convenient for our arrival and departure.

We always make sure we arrive early at the airport in case some glitch occurs. Today one did-we actually arrived so early (4 hours before departure) that the check-in counter had not yet opened!  We had to wait for 45 minutes before we were able to check our luggage and get our boarding passes.  We had a good laugh.

Flying business class gives us access to their lounge so we had a pleasant location to await our flight. The lounge was not as elegant as others we have been in but the seating was plentiful and adequate, and there were decent snacks to occupy our time while we waited for our flight departure, which turned out to be delayed 55 minutes.

The boarding process was a bit unorganized but once we were on board we were impressed. The seating arrangement in business class was radically different from others we have experienced. It was well laid out, with plenty of storage space and convenient places to keep things. Yvonne really loved it. Oh, by the way, we were asked to wear masks when on board.

As expected the German flight crew was organized and efficient. Preflight drinks were offered, followed by a menu of the meals to be served, a hot towel to freshen up and pre-dinner drinks and snacks once we were in the air. The meal was excellent, one of the better ones we have had over the years.

Entertainment options were so-so. Movies and TV show selection were somewhat dated. We both started watching “The Lost City” but I lost interest about 2/3 of the way through it and decided to try to grab some sleep as it was now almost 9PM. My two glasses of wine with dinner did its trick and I managed to get almost five hours of rest before awaking in time to be served breakfast. Surprisingly, Yvonne who always seems to have trouble sleeping on planes said she slept 3-4 hours.  Flying Condor is now her preferred mode of travel since our business class seats had pulsating massage feature in every seat!

Although we left late we arrived on time in Frankfurt. I had forgotten how big the Frankfurt airport is and we wandered around a bit before we found how to find our way to baggage claim (signage was not up to what I had expected). No lines at passport control and our luggage arrived within 5 minutes of us arriving at baggage claim.

We are staying at the Sheraton hotel here at the airport, which is attached to the terminal so getting there only involves a fairly short indoor walk to reach it. Because Bill Marriott gave me “lifetime platinum” status (while I was still working) we try to stay at their chain whenever we can as I am usually granted upgrades and other perks when staying there. Indeed we were upgraded to the club level floor, given access to the club lounge (free food and drinks). The fellow at check in was super nice and even walked us to the elevators, pointing out where the club was located.

We crashed for three hours and then visited the lounge where we were offered “bento” boxes as a dinner snack. It was a delightful change of pace and we really enjoyed them.

Sending Yvonne back to the room I decided to return to the airport lobby to determine how/where we need to go in the morning to catch our plane to Zurich and then to Palermo Sicily, our ultimate destination. It took a few stops and questiong local staff to learn how to do it and I am glad I went through the effort as I do not want to wander around lugging luggage in the morning trying to maneuver the airport.

So far, so good. I have even managed to upload pictures and issue this blog entry before we call it a day! Hopefully things continue running smoothly for us.