Geneva to Reykjavik

Day 1. Friday, 28 June 1991. Geneva to Glasgow. 6 hours 9 minutes - IFR.

It was 4 p.m. when we finally took off. By this time, lots of lovely CBs had built up between Dijon and Reims and over London. We zig-zagged around them and the sky cleared from the Midlands on. We had originally planned to fly directly to Inverness, but in view of our late departure coupled with a headwind and closing time at Inverness, we decided that our destination would have to be Glasgow. Glasgow, which hardly has a reputation for being the most attractive of cities, must have been anxious to please us. Bathed in red sunlight on that clear evening, it certainly looked at its best as we made our approach.
Landing at 9 p.m. local time, we were greeted by a friendly handling agent called Martin, who was so keen to fly to California that he would have stowed away if there had been an inch of space on board! 

Day 2. Saturday, 29 June. Glasgow to Inverness. 47 minutes - IFR.

From the distance covered, you can see that we were not trying to reach the U.S.A. in record time. We had 34 days at our disposal and Priority No. 1 was enjoyment. Our only goal for the day was to go in search of Nessy! The flight to Inverness was one of the most pleasant I'd ever made. At 7000 feet, we were low enough to enjoy the view of the hills and lochs beneath us. At Inverness, we hired a car, drove to Lewiston Village near Drumnadrochit, booked into an inn and headed for the Loch to look for The Monster... (Our findings will be published in a separate report)!

Day 3. Sunday, 30 June. Inverness to Reykjavik. 4 hours, 58 minutes - IFR.

Inverness airport wants 24 hours prior notice if you are leaving the country on a Sunday and need customs clearance. What they didn't tell us was that the charge would be 54 pounds sterling. The bill came later, in California. 
Due to a quaint UK rule regarding altitudes in uncontrolled airspace, north-west bound traffic has to fly at an even number of thousands of feet plus 500. (Yes, the British like to be different). We were therefore cruising along at a flight level of 10,500 feet when we got into some cloud and picked up some ice. We descended to 8,500 feet to get rid of it before climbing to 12,000 (now in oceanic controlled airspace) to avoid getting into more cloud. After that it was clear all the way over the sea to Iceland. We descended to 8000 for a better view of the wild, volcanic scenery on the way to Reykjavik. Somehow I had always imagined Iceland's capital to be white and was surprised to see how colourful it is with its red, blue and yellow houses as we made our final approach to Reykjavik airport.
We paid the landing fee - a reasonable 100 dollars covering landings for a week at any airport in Iceland - and booked into the Hotel Loftleidir, adjacent to the airport. On enquiring about the rates, we decided that one night at 160 dollars was enough and moved to cheaper accommodation at a guest house the next day. Even there, we had to pay about 90 dollars a night for a room with the bathroom down the corridor.

On a left base for Inverness