On Wednesday, the MATPRA Media Marketplace began with a substantial breakfast at Hotel Bethlehem with everyone attending being welcomed to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Breakfast was followed by the Market Place where we met many representatives for tourism organizations from the Mid-Atlantic States. Several of them were quick to offer suggestions of other wineries to visit.

For lunch we boarded buses to take us to the ArtsQuest “Center at SteelStacks” for lunch. This is a combination of an artsy music event location connected with the history of Bethlehem Steel. The backdrop for many musical events is the view of the old Bethlehem Steel plant. I plan to write a more comprehensive article about this soon because it is a wonderful concept for rejuvenating industrial sites that have become eyesores.

Terry’s bus group took a short ride on the canal, visited the National Canal Museum and the Sigal Museum.

After lunch my group went to the location of the Moravian settlement and toured the numerous historic buildings on site. At one time this settlement was a self-sufficient community. The community included: a blacksmith shop, tannery, housing, apothecary and more.

The evening finished with a dine-a-round. We were assigned to the Edge Restaurant for appetizers where we enjoyed wine with pizza bites, fresh salad and calamari. For dinner we discovered McCarthy’s Tea Room in a room at the back of an Irish shop where we enjoyed a choice of Steak and Ale Pie, Curried Vegetable Pastie, or Roasted Chicken Breast with Cider Sauce. Petite desserts and coffee followed when we returned to Hotel Baltimore.

Now we are looking forward to Thursday’s events in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Cheers, Kathy