The flight to Keflavik left at 6.30 so we stayed at the Crowne Plaza at Manchester Airport. After a rather expensive dinner, we spent the evening watching planes land and take off from our hotel bedroom.

4 am came too soon and by 4.45 we found ourselves in a huge queue for the shuttle bus to Terminal 1. What we had forgotten was that it was a very short walk away. Once in the terminal the queue for baggage drop extended the length of the departures hall and then outside the building. A man came along telling people on our flight to go to a different check-in. More queueing ensued. For once our case was underweight!

The queues for security were horrendous but once again we were rushed through but got held up because Joan had a long forgotten lip balm in her ruck sack. Then it was a dash to the gate as boarding was closing.

The flight was uneventful and gave us the chance to have breakfast, before landing and a trip to the duty free. It had all seemed such a dash. There were shuttle buses to the hire car offices where we then had to wait half an hour to pick up our Toyota Swift.

We were already sleepy ahead of te six hour drive to Akureyri on mainly single carriageway roads. The scenery was verdant but we didn't take much time to look at it though Snaefellsjokell glaciar looked spectacular.

We stopped at Hvammstangi for shopping and afternoon tea, a port known for its seal colony. We reached Akureyri around six and though it was still early we had a dinner of pasta and sat out in the cold on our balcony before an early night.