Radisson Plaza Resort Tahiti

ARRIVING:

We arrived in Pape ‘ete from Brisbane via Auckland at 1am local time the same day as we had left Brisbane about 14 hours earlier at 11.15am! We had two Oct 21st which was very strange as we crossed the International Date Line. It was however a very long day so we pleased to arrive at the hotel.

The pickup from Fa’aa airport went smoothly and we were greeted with a lovely scented flower lei and a group of local singers serenading us as we went through passport control and collected our bags. The lei incidentally still smelt lovely in our room on the day we left five days later so the Tahitian gardenia has a very powerful aroma.

THE INITIAL WONDERMENT:

The hotel reception area was airy and open and the lady behind the desk was lovely. We were upgraded to a suite with an ocean view and asked if we needed help with our luggage which we declined and set off to find it. There were about 6 blocks of rooms and we were in the 6th on the top floor but luckily there was a lift otherwise the luggage would have been a problem up all the stairs.

We opened the door to our suite and wow! Amazing! Downstairs was a sitting room with a desk and cupboards/wardrobes. There was a downstairs loo, a fridge and kettle with tea/coffee etc. A TV unit was in the wall, the floors were beautiful hardwood polished with cream walls and simple cane furniture with cream cushions. This floor had a large private balcony with two sun beds and two chairs and a table.

Up the lovely solid wooden stairs we went to discover our bedroom which was beautiful. There was an enormous bed facing the drawer unit which had a TV on it. As you came up the stairs there was a large wardrobe unit inside this was a safe with number code. To the left of the bed as you stood at the foot was a window that went to the floor and from this the view was ‘to die for’. We could lie in bed and see over the lovely free form pool out to the ocean through the trees. It really was the most beautiful bedroom view and each night we left the curtains open so we woke to this stunning view in the morning.

The bathroom had a really big shower with glass front, a sink with under shelf, toilet and bath too. There are not many places you can sit on the toilet and see the view of the ocean through a large floor to ceiling window!

Extras provided included a hair dryer in the bathroom and bathroom scales (who wants to weigh themselves on holiday?), an iron and ironing board, a folding suitcase stand. On our bed, when we arrived, was a personal welcoming letter and two lovely soaps from the spa which I was very touched with. In the bathroom was shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, shower gel, a shower cap and two different kinds of soap. Downstairs there were three kinds of tea, decaff and normal coffee but only vanilla flavoured coffee mate which were lovely in coffee but disgusting in tea. Luckily I had taken some mini UHT packs so they did for my tea. We were rather taken with the sugar packs which had Tahitian pictures on the back so we opened them carefully and made a small collection of those.

To continue with the good, internet was FREE and unlimited which was how I managed to read/rate a few reviews while away. You could either connect with wifi in the bar or Reception or connect via a cable to the connection near the phone in your room. I thought this was a real bonus and the best bargain in Tahiti!

AROUND THE RESORT

The pool below our room was lovely, a free form infinity pool with a very gradual increase in depth so you could walk in like on a beach. It was wonderfully relaxing and around the pool were plenty of trees and sun beds so there was never a problem getting a chair or finding shade. Pool towels were available from a man in a hut but most of the time he wasn’t there so we just helped ourselves. 

Down from the wooden boardwalk around the pool you could get on to the black sandy beach. Unfortunately the sea shelved very quickly and the waves breaking at the edge threw sand and pebbles at you as you entered the sea. There were also quite strong riffs so after testing the water we decided the pool was a more pleasant option but it was nice to see and hear the sea.

The pool bar and main restaurant was beside the pool and the beach and the setting could not have been nicer. The staff were all delightful and tried to give you a table right at the front looking at the sea.

There was another a la carte restaurant that was next to the reception area but it was pricey and also only open on certain days. The Lafayette bar was also above the reception area but we didn’t explore that as we were content with the one by the pool. The other side of the reception area there were shops and there was also a spa with a sauna and steam room which we could use but we were not tempted as it was already quite warm and we preferred the sun to a steam room or sauna.

NOT SO GOOD:

Tahiti is VERY expensive, quite shockingly so. Our breakfasts were not included and this was the only hotel where they were not included in all our island stays. The buffet breakfast cost about £18 a head which we felt was quite steep. The breakfasts were quite good, plenty of fresh fruit, yogurts and fruit salad, fruit juices (no Bucks fizz here!). There were cold meats, cheese and salad stuff, including black olives and gherkins which we made good use of and made a sandwich for our lunch too.  The hot stuff included an egg station, scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, grilled tomatoes and French toast. Some days there were pancakes and maple syrup but I only had them once. The bread was limited to French bread, sliced bread and rolls and there were different pastries and things like banana bread which I took for my afternoon tea. It was quite a good breakfast but didn’t compare to the Hilton in Fiji which was a lot cheaper.

It was possible to have an a la carte breakfast but that worked out even more. An American couple next to us ordered a la carte and their exclamations about the prices showed they felt the same as we did. We had no choice but to eat in the hotel as it was miles out of Papeete so we made sure we got our money’s worth.

To add insult to injury on Sunday they called breakfast ‘Sunday Brunch’ and the price increased to about £24 each. The food offered was a little different in that it included a lot of the left overs from the buffet meal the night before!! I avoided those dishes as they included raw fish so really it was a bit of a cheek but it seemed that a lot of local Tahitian families came for this brunch and then stayed to use the hotel facilities on a Sunday.

We ate two evening meals here.  One was a la carte in the sea front restaurant. The food was okay, nothing special but well cooked and there was enough.. The second was the ‘Round the world’ buffet with Tahitian show on Saturday night which we paid over 12000 Pacific French francs about £100 for two – with about £10 tax added to the bill at the end. The salad stuff was very nice, fresh, tasty and included the raw fish salad and a few local things. My husband tried the hot choices and came back with the strangest selections of food – a rather tasteless chicken curry, a dry lamb dish, gnocchi with mussels and nachos that had no chilli at all. He was unimpressed. I enjoy the salad stuff so stuck with that and then explored the desserts. These were actually very nice. They looked good, there was a nice balanced selection and they tasted good too. There was a lovely almond pie, tiramisu, chocolate mousse and some others but not one had any hint of anything that could be even vaguely Tahitian about it which was a bit disappointing.

WHAT DID WE THINK THEN?

All in all we felt five days was too long here, I will write a separate review on Tahiti itself and you will see why. The resort was lovely but there was really nothing to do there apart from swim and sunbathe or in my case catch up with my Ciao and Dooyoo reads! The room we had was probably one of the best we have stayed in but after a while the excitement of a nice room even with a lovely view begins to wear a bit thin if there is nothing to do or see. Our stay here cost us about £400 just for two evening meals and four breakfasts – that is a lot of money for some very ordinary meals.

According to our guide on the one trip we did this hotel is joining the Hilton and the Hyatt that have already closed in Tahiti so it may not be around much longer. Maybe tales of Tahiti’s outrageous prices have started to reach the travelling public and they are voting with their feet.

Tahiti not the island Paradise I imagined

Tahiti is the largest of the French Polynesian islands and is a volcanic island with black sand not the lovely white sand you imagine on a South sea island. The island is 45 km across at its widest point and covers an area of 1,045 km2  so it is not huge. We were staying on Tahiti Nui (big Tahiti) which is the bigger part of the island which has a thin bit about half way down the island. The smaller southern part is called Tahiti Iti or small Tahiti.

When we booked our trip to the South Sea islands we were both very keen to see Tahiti as this was the island the epitomised the South Seas through Gauguin’s beautiful paintings. His paintings were full of bright colours and exotic people and this is what I was expecting. I was hoping to see colourful tropical gardens and friendly smiling local people rather like we had seen in Samoa, Fiji and then later in the lovely Cook Islands. How wrong can you be?

Tahiti is miles from anywhere except the other French Polynesian islands and even these are often an hour or so flight away. To give you an idea Tahiti is 4,400 km to the south of Hawai'i, a whopping 7,900 km from Chile and a good six hour flight and 5,700 km from Australia.

We arrived at Faa’a airport which was quite tiny and were welcomed with singing and all the formalities like passport and collecting luggage went very smoothly. Once outside we found our name on the board for our meeting and the person took us to check in and gave us lovely fragrant leis to wear then we waited while they sorted out which car would take us tour hotel which was the Radisson this time. After about ten minutes sitting in the mini bus with another couple they finally decided to take us to our hotel. This was a bit disorganised and as we were quite tired from a night of travel we were a bit peeved at the wait as we had paid some decent amount for an airport transfer to save us fussing at the airport in the middle of the night.

As I said it was very late at night and we were feeling quite tired so I can’t say I noticed too much on the way to the hotel. We passed through or by Papeete  (pop 131,695) which appeared to be quite a small town beside the sea and not a large capital city by most standards. The road pretty well followed the coast all the way to the hotel and we discovered later that this was because the middle of the island is not inhabited at all. It is quite hilly being a volcanic island and most of it is still overgrown vegetation. The majority of people live on the fringes of the island of Tahiti and very few live inland or on the southern blob of Tahiti Iti.

The entire population of the island is only about 180.000 so it is a very small island in so many ways.
Tahiti is part of French Polynesia and the citizens and French; they have all the benefits of being French with none of the downs sides it seems but more of that later! They are part of France but not part of the EU. They have their own currency which if called the French Pacific Franc (CFP) and this is fixed to the Euro at 1 CFP = EUR .00838. The main language spoken by all is French and the Tahitian language is definitely a second language. During the 1960’s it was forbidden to teach Tahitian in schools but today it is taught once again. All this seems to have removed a lot of the feeling for a Tahitian culture from the people which I found quite sad. I felt that Tahiti was exactly that, France in the South pacific, the people have full political and civil rights of French citizens.

This is the part that we found staggering. They pay no income tax at all yet their education is free through to university. They pay only 20% of any medical costs and there is brand spanking new hospital just built in Papeete. Tahiti has its own  assembly, president, budget and laws and the previous president of Tahiti was pushing for independence from France but obviously only about 20% of the population were supporting this. I am amazed that 20% supported it as France is keeping the country afloat. Franch money pays for the roads, the education and most of the health care of Tahitians. Presumably it must also pay for the assembly and the President as well as the police as the local people pay no tax so this is the only funding coming in. The only industry producing much income is tourism and that is mainly on the islands of Bora Bora and Moorea which is adjacent to Tahiti.

We looked in to spending a couple of nights on Bora Bora until we found that the cost of two nights and the flights was in the region of £3000 for the two of us. So this is a destination for the seriously wealthy as we found Tahiti itself expensive enough.

Once we were in Tahiti we enquired about getting to Moorea.  It appears that there is a ferry between the islands which goes hourly but there were no trips organized from Tahiti to get to Moorea picking you up from your hotel. The shuttle from the hotel to Papeete only left at 9am or 1pm returning at 5pm so we would have had to catch a local bus and no-one was very helpful about times. Trips around Moorea could be arranged from the ferry port in Moorea but you had to get there. In the end it was going to be so complicated and also quite expensive as every time you did anything in Tahiti it was expensive so we decided not to bother.

I think considering how much the people rely on tourism as an industry it is appalling how poor it was. Nothing was easy and transport was also unreliable. We had a spent a morning on our island tour of Tahiti and been monumentally unimpressed so we were reluctant to spend more money getting to Moorea to find that it was another disappointment.

The other main industry in Tahiti or French Polynesia is the farming of black pearls and these were eye wateringly expensive. Most of the pearls are exported to Japan, Europe and the US. Tahiti also exports vanilla pods, fruits,( not sure which as we didn’t enjoy many fresh fruit while we were there)  flowers, monoi, which  is an infused oil made from soaking the petals of Tahitian gardenias (tiare) in  coconut oil. fish, copra oil, and noni fruit which is supposed to have health benefits but tasted disgusting, a cross between molasses and vinegar.

We didn’t see much evidence of anything being farmed at all and a lot of food is imported from Australia and New Zealand. I am sure more could have been grown as the soil is fertile and the weather perfect for growing but I think the people have got used to being kept by France. They will have a big shock if France decided to give them independence and cut off their funds.

I was quite shocked that a nation could be allowed to sit back and just take with no encouragement for them to do something about their own up keep. This ‘handout’ receiving is not good for self esteem and the lack of pride was evident as we drove around. There was graffiti everywhere on every flat surface someone had scrawled untidy graffiti and it looked awful. All the houses had walls or corrugated iron fences so you could not see in and all that was visible were ugly scribbled on walls I various states of repair. This was not how I had imagined this tropical island was going to look, I was very disappointed.

Hope this has been of some interest to you and save you spending the money to find out for yourself how underwhelming this island is.

Iceland National Museum

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/11947267/?claim=yh8wpesck2d">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

We spent a day exploring Reykjavik and this was one of the places we visited in the afternoon after our lovely lunch in Café Loki. It is quite walk able from mot places in the capital but I believe buses do go out that way and of course you could always take a taxi. It isn’t terrifically well signed but as we managed to find it obviously it is possible to find.

It is a large modern, not terribly attractive building. I think it look more like a factory but inside is well laid out and there I plenty to see which makes it worth a visit.

TIMES AND PRICES
Summer
May 1st - September 15th:
Daily 10-17
Winter
September 16th - April 30th:
Tuesday - Sunday 11-17. Closed on Mondays.
Adult: 1200 kr. About £7.00
Senior citizens (67+) and students: 600 kr.
Groups of 10+: 600 kr.
Children under 18, ICOM, FISOS: Free
Visa and Mastercard  are both accepted


ACCESIBILTY AND OTHER PRACTICAL MATTERS

Most parts of the museum are easily accessible with automatic doors. There are folding prams for use of visitors with young children and wheelchairs as well if needed available from reception. There are lifts to the basement, where the cloakroom and toilets are situated, and there is also a lift between the floors of the exhibition room.

There are three toilets in the cloakroom below the entrance, one of them for disabled, and further toilets with door openers on the 2nd floor, one is suitable for disabled.

Information is available in Braille just ask at reception. There are audio guides in Icelandic, English, Danish, German, French, Swedish, Italian and Polish.  Special audio guides for children are available in Icelandic and English.

The museum is all  no smoking but  there Is an area  outside the café where wall mounted cigarette receptacles are available and people can smoke there  .
The café is on the ground floor not far from the reception area but as we didn’t use this I won’t comment on what is offered or prices.

The museum shop was neat and modern looking and sold a variety of locally  produced goods and handicrafts ,a good selection of books, children´s toys ,most of which are replicas based on old toys were also sold but the price were pretty steep on the things we looked at.

THE MUSEUM DISPLAYS

There was such a lot to see that really you needed to visit more than once. I find it hard to take in too much information at one time so we tend to choose  a few things that interest u and spend time there and leave the rest as otherwise I get ‘information overload’.

We looked at the exhibitions that told the story of the Icelandic nation from the beginnings to the present day. Even that was actually too much to take it all in.

‘Making of a Nation’ – tells the story of the Icelandic people through ‘about 2,000 objects, dating from the Settlement Age to the present, as well as about 1,000 photographs from the 20th century.’

The exhibition starts with the ship in which medieval settlers crossed the ocean to the island mainly from Norway and takes the visitor through the years to the final exhibition which is the airport which is Iceland’s gateway to the world today.

Although there were many older exhibits the ones that grabbed my attention were those of the twentieth century which were collected into decades and sadly  I remembered a lot of the things from the sixties onwards but it was funny to see them in a museum.

Another interesting section was the time between 1400 and 1600 when the Dane ruled Iceland and the Danish King forced them to become Lutheran Christians but being pragmatic they took on board the religion and happily adapted this into their former pagan beliefs.

One of the museum’s most important pieces and one of the oldest is a sitting bronze figure that some think is Thor while others wonder whether it is a sitting Christ. The human figure has been dated to around 1000 AD. The figure is holding an object which could either be Thor’s hammer, but look remarkably similar to the Christian cross.

The museum’s exhibits are collected and displayed in chronologic order but then there are also obvious themes which include  Work and Way of Life,, Homes and Settlement Patterns,  Arts and Crafts and finally Social Culture and Language

There are quite a few multi media displays with interactive touch screens . These allow you to choose how much you want to learn about different things and we spent some time on a couple of these but as they were in Icelandic we didn’t get a lot out of the wording! One of these interactive exhibitions was a telephone which allowed visitors to talk to people from the past which we watched some youngsters enjoying. There were also different  videos on digital screens.

As I said there was a huge amount of information with so many exhibits that you really needed to visit a few times to get full value from the place. It was beautifully set out with a mixture of high tech and traditional exhibits or artifacts. The explanations were in Icelandic and English which was handy for us.

Once we reached the twentieth century there were a huge number of photographs which again were interesting but there I a limit to how much visual information you can take in so we looked at a few which grabbed out attention but as there were well over 600 it would take some time to do them justice but it was an impressive collection.

The main exhibition,’ Reflections of a Century’, takes you year by year through the century   tracing the history of Iceland and its people .  Every year I represented by about half a dozen photographs.

We were beginning to be a bit foot weary and as we find there is a limit to how much we can take in we spent about an hour and a half in the museum before we felt we had had enough and needed to get back to the hotel for a bit of a feet p before our trip to see the Northern Lights.

RECOMMENDED?

It is not a ‘must see’ place but if you are interested in finding out a bit more about Iceland and its history it is well worth a visit. It is well set out and there I plenty of variety so something will appeal to everyone I would think.

This is the cultural museum in Reykjavik but if you fancy something very different you can skip this and visit the Phallus museum see http://www.phallus.is/phallus/.” The Icelandic Phallological Museum is probably the only museum in the world to contain a collection of phallic specimens belonging to all the various types of mammal found in a single country.”

I just wish we had known about it sooner but sadly we didn’t have time to visit while we were there!

Hallgrímskirkja - Reykjavik

This church can be seen from almost anywhere in Reykjavik city and as you are approaching the city. This is not because the church is exceptionally high but more because everything else in the city is actually quite low rise so that the church which is on a bit of a hill does actually stand well above the other buildings. It is the sixth tallest building in the country so not surprising that it can be  seen from all over Reykjavik.

Strangely the church actually looks bigger from further away than it does when you are up close. Once inside the main church part it is not anywhere near as big as some of our cathedrals and more like a decent sized town’s church. However it is the largest church in all of Iceland.

The church was designed by Gudjon Samuelson who was  the former state architect. Samuelson is supposed to have taken his inspiration from the volcanic basalt rock formations found in so many parts of Iceland. The church took an amazing 38 years to build as construction work began in 1945 and ended in 1986 which seems an incredibly long time to me and I am not sure why it did take so long as it really isn’t as huge or complex as many other modern buildings which have been built is far less time.

The tower stands over 73 metres high and is certainly an impressive sight. It is not highly decorated or colourful nor are there any fine stone carved decorations but still it is impressive in its simplicity.  It does indeed look like a rock edifice but beautifully symmetrical.

The church is open daily from 9.00 to 20.00 and is free to look around the church on ground level. If however you want to go up the tower in the lift then there of around 350ISK for adults, a discount for senior citizens and children from 6 to 12 are 50ISK.

Outside the church centrally located perfectly is a huge statue of the Icelandic explorer who actually discovered America, Leifur Eiriksson. He sailed to America in 1000 AD but this is largely forgotten in favour of Columbus’s 1492 voyage of discovery maybe because of a lack of documentation at the time.

If you do visit I highly recommend paying to go up in the lift which takes you to the first level where the clocks can be seen from the outside. You can look through windows in the clocks and get fabulous views of Reykjavik from all four sides. I got some great photos taken through these windows which are parts of a circle so a curved shape which made a great frame.

Once at this level you can climb a stair case to the top and from here you can see from higher up and without glass obstructions but you do have to endure the icy winds so I went up felt as though I was being blown away and frozen so I retreated down to the next level again.

Downstairs in the church it is all very simple with few decorations. Some of the windows had stained  glass pictures and there was a lot of modern polished wood around the altar area.. The church also is very proud of its organ which is the biggest in Iceland. It did indeed look pretty impressive from below and we were told It is 15 metres tall and weighs 25 tons!!

 The church was opened in 1986 and its name comes from an Iceland priest and hymn writer named Hallgrimur Petursson. I have to admit not someone I had ever heard of before visiting this church.

The churches in Iceland tend to be Lutheran, as this is hence the simplicity and lack of decoration both outside and inside. Personally I loved the clean lies and simple stained glass modern designs and the tall simple windows making the area with the altar a bit like a ship in shape. The pulpit was ultra modern and very simple which again I found attractive in comparison to the ornate carved ones so often found in old churches, it was a refreshing change.

The church is really a must visit place in Reykjavik if only for the wonderful views over the colourful rooftops of Reykjavik. The bells were pretty impressive too if you looked up instead of out of the clock windows. They didn’t ring while we were there so not sure how noisy they would be if you are in the tower when they are rung.

This is a very different church both from the outside and the inside and well worth spending around an hour exploring. After you have been to the church you should visit Cafe Loki and sample some Icelandic specialities as they offer some great taster plates. They also have a great display of photos of the church taken in all different lights which is pretty impressive. Sitting in the café you can enjoy views of the church and see if from another angle too.

Cafe Paris - Reykjavik

Cafe Paris,
14, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
When we first passed this restaurant we walked on as we were keen to eat local and thought this would be a French restaurant rather than an Icelandic one. However on our second evening we decided that the restaurant we had wanted to go to was a bit more expensive than we wanted to pay so as this one served Minke whale steaks we thought we would give it a try.

My husband did a lot research about eating whale as we are not about to eat an animal that is endangered but apparently these are plentiful and often eaten in Iceland. The Icelandic people also eat Puffin but it was not offered here and only available at the expensive restaurant so sadly my husband had to forget trying that!
The bonus about this restaurant was that it was not far from our hotel and very close to the tour company head office where we left for our Northern Lights tour so very convenient for us.

This is a very casual sort of dining place and bar. As you enter the bar area which has a wooden floor and is fairly large and empty with few tables around. You are greeted here and shown to your table and at this stage then walk through a door way to the main part of the restaurant which still has the same casual feel with a book case in the centre of the room and as there is free wifi there were several people just enjoying a drink and playing on their laptops. It had an air of Paris bar about the place which was quite pleasant and not at all formal dining.

We were able to sit at our table and either people watch the rest of the drinkers and diners or look outside into the Square where the Parliament House was and the lights around the Square. There were windows all around the restaurant so during the daylight you could sit and look out on four sides but in the dark which is was quite early in Iceland in January all you could see were lights and people walking close by.

The menu was pretty wide ranging and varied. Options included many starters, sandwiches and snacks, a number of starters and several main meals. We were not that hungry so chose a main meal only each and no starters.

My husband ordered his griiled Minke whale pepper steak with pan fried vegetables, chips and Madagascar pepper sauce which cost 3690 krona which is about £20. I chose Garlic roasted lobster tails With bread and garlic butter which was an appetizer but quite big enough and cost 3390 krona which is about £18.

We ordered our drinks and they came promptly and by the time we had our food brought to us we were ready for a second drink too which was brought quickly too. The food must have been freshly prepared and cooked as it did take some time to come to us but when it did arrive it was well presented and looked fresh.
My husband's whale and chips looked pretty much like a steak and chips and indeed I did try the whale and it was more like ostrich, very tender and not at all fishy. The chips were quite chunky and nicely cooked and the sauce was also very tasty sort of creamy and peppery. My husband liked this meal so much that when we went back to the restaurant again he ordered the same meal.

My garlic lobster tails appetizer was delicious with at least six lobster tails and plenty of bread and a bit of salad too as well as lots of garlic I bet I was pleasant to be around the next day. I certainly could not have eaten any more as it was quite rich.

The second time we ate here as we found it more reasonable than the other places around and my husband had the same meal while I varied mine a little and ordered the Lobster Salad "à la Café Paris" with arugula, peppers, feta cheese, sweet red onions, cous-cous and garlic which was 3290 krona about £17.50. This was less rich than the previous lobster tail meal but just as tasty and the salad made it a much fresher meal. Their cous cous was much bigger than ours, more like sago sized which was interesting but tasty.
As you can clearly see by these prices food was quite expensive and this was one of the cheaper places we found hence our return for a second meal. One restaurant we had been recommended would have been about £75 a person so we looked at the menu and walked on.

We found the food was really tasty and well cooked and the service was both efficient and friendly on both occasions. The drinks were pretty reasonable, sort of London prices and what my husband was really happy about was that it is not considered necessary or even desirable to tip in Iceland as it is considered an insult so what you pay is the amount it costs no adding 10% or more to the bill.

We felt this place had a lovely relaxed ambience and obviously we were not alone in this as on both nights the cafe was pretty busy. It was not packed but most tables were full and the music playing was recognisable English stuff usually. It never ceases to amaze us how our music is known around the world by everyone and it was nice to hear things we recognised. The music was loud enough that we could hear it without straining but not so loud that we couldn't hear each other in conversation.

The toilets were clean and accessible as was the rest of the restaurant as it was on ground level throughout the parts we saw anyway.

If you are heading for Reykjavik I would certainly recommend this as the food was good and the prices far more reasonable than many other places we stopped and inspected the menu of. There were plenty of vegetarian options too and sandwiches and the like if you wanted something smaller.