Earth is spinning fairly reliably on its axis this year, so far, and my plans for our trip are gradually falling into place. Deb and Chad, and Lisa and John, are coming with us – no Lyndy and Joe this time (sob!)

This is what it looks like so far :

  • Leave on Aug 2
  • 2 nights (1 full day) in Dubai enroute
  • Arrive in Dublin, stay the night there
  • Next day pick up hire car(s), 5 nights (4 full days) in Ireland, the last one back in Dublin
  • Early next morning, get on the ferry to Holyhead in Wales, connects with a train to Manchester. Stay the night in Manchester.
  • Next afternoon, fly to Iceland, stay the night in Reykjavik.
  • Next day pick up hire car(s), 7 full days travel around Iceland, finishing in Reykjavik for the last night
  • On the Saturday, some or all of us will do the race (half-marathon or 10km), then catch the afternoon flight to London
  • John and Lisa leave us in Reykjavik to fly to the US
  • 4 nights, 3 full days in London – 2 days with Michael as a tour guide. We will be staying with Michael. One day free to do whatever in London.
  • Travel to Paris by train through the Chunnel. 4 nights (3 full days) in Paris.
  • Fly home via somewhere for a one night stopover, arriving home on or around Aug 28

I have been in contact with a travel agency called Extreme Iceland to organise our car hire and accommodation for the road trip in Iceland. Their quote seems reasonable and contains all we need, so I will probably be going ahead and booking that fairly soon. Summer accommodation in Iceland books out very quickly, and we don’t want to miss out and have to sleep in a flea-pit – not very likely, apparently everything is squeaky-clean.

It’s getting exciting now – next step will be looking for suitable flights with Sharron’s help. Al and I, John and Lisa, have bought our warm jackets – it’s strange to get your head around that in the middle of a Queensland summer, but a good time to buy, especially from the US where they are starting to discount winter stock. They probably won’t be needed on the rest of our trip, but even summer in Iceland will be very cold for us Queenslanders.