Harry Potter! Harry Potter! Harry Potter!!!

8 February 2016 –

Do you have a particular book series or movie that you really love?  I mean REALLY LOVE???  

For us, that's Harry Potter.  (Though, as you'll find out it's not our only love….that's for later.)

Last year Ava started reading the Harry Potter series…and finished it too!  Over the summer our books were jostled between Annika and Ava – each vying and grabbing opportunities to get ahead and read the next book before the other sister could grab it.  Plus, ever since we moved to China (did you know we passed our FOUR YEAR marker???? Yes we did!) Annika has been talking about visiting Diagon Alley (which is a location in the Harry Potter series).

For those of you that don't know – the Harry Potter movie series was filmed in a studio close to London.  AND that studio offers tours of the old sets.  How on Earth could we resist going on a Harry Potter tour??? 

Yeah, we couldn't resist! 

I booked us a tour that included a shuttle bus ride from and to London, butterbeer, and tickets to The Making of Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studio Tour. 

Well, whatcha waiting for?  It's 4am and we're up.  Yay for jet lag. (blergh….jet lag is the one part about traveling that stinks)

Finally…7am!  We can now go down for breakfast in the hotel.

Mark got the FULL English breakfast…wow.  That's a lot of food!  Let's see….he's got bacon, one poached egg, toast, baked beans, mushrooms, one grilled tomato, one sausage, and one hash brown. Plus coffee. Erf.  I'm full just looking at this photo. (it was tasty)

Waiting in line for the tour to start.  Along with at least a hundred or so school children.  Oh boy!  

Do you recognize this set?  It's the Room under the Stairs:

Welcome to the Great Hall at Hogwarts – School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!!!!

Notice the ceiling????  It's not exactly enchanted, is it???

Hagrid (he's a half-giant and hence much, MUCH taller and bigger than normal folks):

And let's have a moment of silence in honor of the recently deceased Alan Rickman (who portrayed Professor Snape in the series):

Headmaster Dumbledore:

If you're asking yourself, "Is Annika excited about seeing this?"….here's your answer:

Yes, yes she is! (She nearly jumped out of her skin a few weeks ago when Mark told the girls that we that we'd booked tickets to go on this particular tour.)

This tour is a self-guided tour…we can go at our own pace. There are posters describing in some detail the sets, props, and how they brought the magic of Harry Potter to life.  

Hair, make-up, and costumes…all essential in helping every day people (actors) transform them into the characters from JK Rowling's books.  It really helps bring them to life!

Password?????

Gryffindor Common Room:

Check out the props:

The sleeping former headmasters of Hogwarts.  

And here's the magic knife cutting and chopping carrots:

I am not going to post photos of all the props we saw on our tour. There are just too many!!! 

The special effects and "magic" in the movies took countless hours and lots of talented people to accomplish.  Including the use of green screens – which is how they filmed the flying on broomsticks scenes.  

So….here's the scoop. On the tour there was an opportunity to have your photo taken while riding on a broomstick with a green screen background. We've come all this way and I darn well want photos of the girls flying on broomsticks!!!!  While it was fun it also took a LONG time.  Everyone else felt the same we did (meaning there was a long line to wade through). In the end we finally got our photos but because it took so long we ended up having to rush through the rest of the tour.

 

Aaaaa!!!!  Don't run into the wall!  Oh wait, I'm just a Muggle….maybe Annika is witch???  She's trying to head to Platform 9-3/4 which is somewhere between platforms 9 and 10.  The only way to get to that platform is to walk straight at the wall between the two platforms.  Don't try this if you're a Muggle ("non magic folk")!!!

And maybe Ava is also a witch?????  

The (actual) Hogwarts Express:

All aboard! This is the train that takes the students from Kings Cross station to Hogwarts Castle (the school) in the movies. Apparently this is the real prop/set they used in the movies.  However, I think it's stationary. 

Each cabin corresponds to a different, important train scene – in sequential sequence starting from oldest to newest:

I love this scene in the first movie:That's Harry Potter and Ron Weasley with ALL the candies!

 

Annika, don't the chocolate frog get away!!!

Riding in comfort on the Hogwarts Express. 

The only place on the tour where they allow food is at the Back Lot.  We're hungry! 

Oh…I've been sooooooo waiting for this!  I think I'm going to gulp down this butterbeer in seconds. 
And, wow!  Just Wow!  That is one yummy and sweet drink.  It's not beer at all (zero alcohol).  It's a butterscotch flavored fizzy drink with sweetened cream topping.  I think I need to learn how to make this at home!

Time to continue the tour!  We've stepped outside…do you recognize this bus???

 

Or do you recognize this house?  Can you tell from the photo that this is just a stage?  It's only half of a house!!!

 

Creepy!

So, on the tour we learned more about how the character Hagrid was filmed.  The actor is normal height but he portrays a half-giant (very tall).  So, how did they do that?????

Werewolves???? Super creepy.

And this???  The creepiest of all!!!!

 

and…..finally:

Diagon Alley!!!!!

Hogwarts Castle, the model:

We spent the last little bit of the tour in the gift shop.  Sadly we really didn't have enough time and we had a bus to catch back to London!  Annika was interested in purchasing a certain necklace but it was out-of-stock and she needed extra assistance.  Fortunately and thankfully she got the help she needed and they called to hold the bus for us.  We got to ride on a double bus back to London (sadly not on the second floor).  

After we returned to London we still had a few hours before we crashed for the night (due to jet lag).  So, we're off to find shoes for some members of our family.  Annika wants new Converse sneakers.  And Mark bought Dr. Martens…and Ava got Sorrels (aren't those boots made in the USA??? Sigh. Twice the price in London!). I really wanted Dr. Martens boots but I couldn't find what I wanted.  Oh well. 

We're hungry….and why not head to a local pub for ale and meat pies? Yeah, that's the stuff!!!

Thanks for joining us on this eventful "Making of Harry Potter" tour.  It'll take me some time to process all that we saw – I've got a few hundred photos from today! It was amazing to see all the props, sets, costumes, etc that they used in the movies.