Wed, 15 June 2016, 8:32 am: The coffee served just before final approach this morning was the best airplane java I’ve ever tasted, but it was a fraction of the amount I need coming off an overnight flight. Caffeine mainlining shall now commence.
Cafetiero C in Dusseldorf Airport offers a plentiful range of seating, from couches with runway views to lunchroom tables to chairs in more private nooks. With AM crowds already occupying the prime window seats, we settled in around a corner and against a wall.
At the bottom there is my large “strong, full-bodied” Guatemala coffee (3,20 E). It’s the first of two I’ll enjoy seated here during the first half of our layover. Above it is a caffe latte (3,70 E), the same size as my coffee but priced higher presumably because it’s got milk added.
And look what accompanied it (since AirBerlin’s on-board breakfast didn’t do it for me): “pancino salchichon mit cashew, chilli, butter, und salchichon-salami” (3,80 E). So, yes, a good-sized sub-style sandwich costs only ten Euro cents more than a caffe latte.
“Salchichon” is a Spanish summer sausage. Like every single other sausage found anywhere in Germany, it is the furthest thing from spicy that a food can be without actually being yogurt. “Pancino” is Italian for “tummy.” I guess it says something about the German sense of humour (proof that they have one?) that one of their for real menu items is called tummy sausage.
And before anyone squawks that a sandwich like that isn’t right at eight-thirty in the morning, you should know that I was tempted to wash it down with a mug of fresh German beer. Not only were the airport bars already serving, we walked past many full and half-full glasses of beer all around the terminal, as if travelers had been called for boarding in the middle of their fourth round. Some folks carried beers on their breakfast trays instead of coffee or juice. One liquor store mid-terminal had a range of free shots to sample, sitting right there on their counter at this hour. You can’t eat a spicy sausage in this country, but you sure can drink!