April 19th - Harry Potter!

This morning I woke up at 6:45 AM! Why and exclamation point? It's Harry Potter day! Kate and I head to Liverpool Street Station at about 8:10., got to Euston Station, and bought our train tickets for our journey.  Once tickets were bought Kate needed to exchange money, so we did that (we still had about 25 minutes until our train left). We then got on the train and waited until it left, and headed to Watford Junction.

Once at Watford we waited at the station and figured out where the bus would pick us up. We eventually found it and waited about 15 minutes with everyone else waiting to go also. The bus was cool, all decked out in Harry Potter (One of the few pictures I have right now)

Bus to bring people from Watford Juction to the Studio Tour!

Once at the studio tour we picked up tickets without a problem and then went inside. The first room has an entrance to the tour, a cafe area, and a gift shop. We waited for out tour in the gift shop. It was incredible! There was so much Harry Potter everywhere. They had really cute house sweaters, but they were over 50 pounds, so I decided not to. I pretty much chose what I wanted to get people, though there was so much stuff I really wish I had more money.

The front entrance to the building

About 10:25 we queued up and looked at Harry Potter's cupboard under the stairs as we waited to go in.  Once through the first set of doors to begin the tour. We entered the first room which was a small hall with electronic posters on the wall with the movie posters from different movies from all over the world which was pretty cool. We then watched a short film about how the movie came about from the books. After that we went into a theatre looking room with lots of comfy chairs. So we took a seat and watched another short film about all the work that goes into the film, such as the costume designers, makeup artists, etc. And how the movie really cam into being. At the end of the short film the doors of the Great Hall appeared, and the screen rose, revealing... the doors to the Great Hall (unfortunately I have no pictures at the moment for that though I really wish I did). The Great Hall was beautiful, a couple of my favorite parts were the dress of Helena Ravenclaw, and the gargoyles which each houses mascot on the wall. In addition to those there were  several of the Hogwart's Professor's Robes, which were really cool.

Once through the Great Hall I learned about the producers and directors, a small model of the ceiling of the hall, the front gates of Hogwarts, props and costumes from the Yule Ball (including Hermione's Dress) Hagrid's Hut, Gryffindor boys dormitory, the Gryffinder Common Room, a big Pendulum, Dumbledore's Office, Dolores Umbridge's office, the Weasley's Burrow, the Potions room, Ministry of Magic "Magic is Might" statue, and props from different things including the triwizard cup, rememberall, time turner, the golden snitch, Ravenclaw's Diadem, Gaunt's Ring, Salazar Slytherin's locket, Riddle's Diary, the snakes blocking the chamber of secrets, and gringotts vaults door. It was so cool!

After that area, I moved into the outside part, where I got to see Tom Riddle's grave, Privet Drive, the Potter's Cottage, The Knight Bus (3 story bus!), Hogwart's Bridge, and Wizards chess pieces! That part was fun and then I moved into the next part. The next part was all the creatures and makeup artist type stuff, and animatronics department (such as Hagrid's head!). I saw the models of all sorts of characters, including Dobby! I also saw the Monster Book of Monsters, an owl that moves, mandrakes, I think Voldemort's little body which was really really creepy. In the next room there was Buckbeak and a dragon, and a basilisk head! The next room was another one of my favorites: Diagon Alley! It was so cool, the front of Gringotts was there was well as all the shops on a cobblestone type road. There was Ollivander's, an ice cream parlor, the robe making shop, and all sorts of awesome shops.

Once through Diagon Alley I moved into the design department with all the white model things of the castles and all the sets so they could decide on camera angles when they were figuring everything out. After all the little models the next room was possible my favorite: the model of Hogwarts they used for all the sweeping shots and the ones farther away from the castle. It was really awesome to see the entire grounds of Hogwarts with all the buildings and everything. After the model there was the last room with tons of wand boxes everywhere. Each wand box had a different name on it, and they are the 4000 or so people who worked on the film. It was a really cool way to do credits.

The end of the tour

After the studio tour we went through the gift shop again and went shopping, I got a couple keychains for people and a time turner keychain for myself (cause it was really really cute!) Of the day my few favorite things were Ravenclaw's Diadem which had on it inscribed "Wit beyond measure is mans greatest treasure". It was beautiful. Another of my favorites was Diagon Alley, it was so cool to walk down, my other favorite was the model of Hogwarts Castle. It was an absolutely incredible ending to the tour. You know, pretty much everything was really cool, lol.

April 7th - Bath , Castle Coomb, Lacock, Sheep! (Oh yeah and Stonehenge!)

Saturday was a good day, I got up at 7 and had a lunch of chocolate muffins, croissants, apple juice, and hot chocolate, I was very happy with the breakfast, lol. After breakfast I finished getting ready for the day, and head downstairs to wait for everyone so that we could go to Bath. Bath was really cool, we only really had time for the Roman Baths but it was really cool to even just do that. It was neat to be able to see all the stuff that has so much history too it. My favorite part (apart from seeing it) was that the water is 46C and there was a couple ducks just sleeping in the water, probably very content. I was watching them when I was at the ground level and they drifted near the edge, woke up, and then just swam back in the middle. They were very cute.

The Cathedral

The Baths

Ducks in the Bath!

Ducks in the Bath again!

Church from the Baths

Me near the Baths!

The steam rising from the Bath

Me near the Baths

The church again

Roman Bath panoramic picture

After the Baths we moved on to a small village called Castle Coomb (for a few minutes to take pictures). It was a really pretty village (like all of the Cotswolds are). I wish we could have stayed there longer, but we soon moved on to the nice village of Lacock. In Lacock I got to see Harry Potter’s house! There was a really cute cat outside of it also, but it was mean, almost attacking Erin. We then walked to a little stream flowing through, and then went up to King John’s Hunting Lodge which is a little restaurant and tea room. It was really beautiful and really good food. I got tomato and basil soup, I absolutely loved it. After that we made our way back to the bus area, though stopped at a shop with wood things to look around (and possibly get a couple things). Then we made it to the bus right on time.

Church in Castle Coomb

Church closer

A stream in Lacock

The stream in Lacock (again)

Near the stream in Lacock

My lunch - delicious Tomato and Basil soup

Professor McGonagall

Harry Potter house in Lacock!

From Lacock we drove to Stonehenge.  Stonehenge was pretty cool, we got there and it wasn’t super crowded but a bit busy. We went through and under the road to get there, and got to walk around the circle. It would be a lot better if you could go up to the rocks and touch them, but you can’t. There were also sheep which were really cool! Stonehenge was nice to see, not something you need to spend a ton of time at (though if it was a nice day and you could get closer it would be so worth it) but really cool to be able to see.

Look Mom, Rocks!

Me in front of the Rocks

Stonehenge

Once done Stonehenge we made our way back to London via Salisbury, where we could see a huge steeple-thing for a church. Once back in London we got back to Nido, I made dinner, and then Erin and I went shopping. The first place we went was absolutely insane. There were clothes strewn about everywhere and there was a long line for the fitting room. It was bizarre (but cheap). After our shopping I went back to Nido and relaxed before going to sleep.

A park in Salisbury with flowers