The whole event was most enjoyable once we arrived in Manchester on the Friday. We started out in Selby station North Yorkshire waiting to catch the 8 07 train for Manchester, due to a points failure the train didn't come;
"Any time you choose, take off your shoes,
Buy yourself a one way ticket to the blues.
Resign yourself to fate, the trains are always late.
Relax."
So we eventually caught another train for Leeds hoping to change there. We were sitting on the next train to Manchester Airport when news arrived that someone had jumped on to the line between Leeds and Huddersfield and could we leave the train and get onto a bus.
"Never mind the garbage on the carriage floor,
Ignore the vomit sticking to the lavatory door.
Rely on us to fail, We're good old British Rail
Relax."
The two busses, which they supplied for a train full of passengers, were of course full, and it was now about 2 hours to take off. One of the rail staff asked if anyone was in a hurry, this is where things started going good, because when we said we were she rushed us off and put us in a taxi all the way to the airport.
An uneventful flight except for when the pilot mentioned the volcano on the right and every passenger surged to the right of the plane. On landing we were met by Wolfgang and then Letty and rented a 7 seater car to carry 6 people luggage and instruments and later supermarket food so it was quite a crush. Scarpi met us after dinner that night and we played in his local pub.
Saturday we visited the Volcano and did the usual tourist photo thing followed by dinner at Scarpi's where we ate, among other things, "Whale Meat" which was very good (Scarpi did, however, sing the 'Last of the Great Whales') and we followed this with a trip to an Irish pub which Wolfgang mentioned earlier.
Sunday was a trip to an historic church, gyesers and waterfalls and another Irish pub joined by a choir from Faroe Islands
Monday it rained and we had, fortunatly,planned a shoping trip to Reykjavik, Doug went swimming and we played a few tunes in the Self Gathering place that night.
Tuesday was bright again and we visited another church and a very old town near the sea with lots of picturesque colourful houses and finished the day with a ceilidh for the local community which seemed a great success.
Wednesday, One hour's sleep and we were on our way to the Airport again, said goodbye to Letty who stayed another day, and an uneventful flight back to Manchester, which was still open, and then a very good train trip back to Selby.
All in all we did a lot of things, we saw a lot of places and wonderful scenery, we played a lot of tunes, we had a lot of laughs, we met a lot of great people especally Scarpi and his lovely wife, We ate a lot of food, and we now have a lot of fond memories of the Iclandic Euro Gathering.
Bill