A Mini Blogger Meeting and the Tower Bridge

The view from our hotel room offered us another bright and shiny morning. We were reasonably hungry and thanks to an insider tip from a local we knew where to go for a healthy breakfast.

The blog world is a village, often only a few keystrokes away. And so we got to meet with Jon, owner of El Diente's random ramblings blog. This well traveled London born gentleman ('British bloke' just sounds too mundane) was kind enough to spend his lunch break with us (and generously paid for it, too.). As a vegetarian with vegan tendencies, a Triumph rider and a globetrotter, he was generally a soulmate for Sonja, and time flew by as we chatted over motorcycles, travels, food, places to go, and sights to see. It never gets boring when meeting another rider, that's for sure. The weather was just warming up and we decided to sit on the patio of The Mitre pub. Thanks so much, Jon. It was great meeting you.

After Jon returned back to work we took the tube to Tower Hill to visit Tower Bridge and to stroll along river Thames. The underground rail system is well connected, fast and clean, and provided a good opportunity to give our sore feet some rest.

Construction has gone wild in London. There are lots of new and tall buildings since last time we visited. If there is a recession happening in Europe, it certainly doesn't happen here in London, or at least it feels like it doesn't have an impact.

The famous Tower Bridge, a suspension bridge and a draw bridge, opened in 1894, looks very steam punk! On the right the battleship HMS Belfast.

On London Bridge with Tower Bridge in the background.

We watched two blokes digging in the mud exposed due to the low water levels of the river. They used a metal detector so we assume there must be something valuable in the ground worth getting wet, cold and dirty.

The foundation of the Tower of London started back in 1066, talk about historic architecture, eh? Another world heritage site.

And obviously both the castle and the bridge are very popular with the tourists, hence it is quite the challenge to snap some good looking pictures. But in the end we were satisfied with the outcome.

We grabbed some Starbuck goodies (a habit that we have yet to get rid off, now that we are back in Europe) and watched crowds and water flowing by. We felt a bit jet-lagged and before we would fall asleep on the park bench we decided to jump on the next train back to the hotel for a belated afternoon nap.

Refreshed we strolled across Kensington Gardens with Jon's food recommendation in mind, SAF (Simply Authentic Food), a raw vegan restaurant.

 Round Pond.

Sonja had Guacamole with spinach tacos and an excellent creamy veggie soup with gluten-free bread, while Roland chose a dish with rice noodles, shiitake mushrooms and tofu. The only downside was that our mix-juices came long after the meals arrived, both however were delicious.

We got back to the hotel just in time for the Europa League football (soccer for our North American readers): Chelsea against Basel. Finally, some decent game to watch.