Everything goes off according to plan. We hit the city, find the tour location, find a pub (the Plumbers Arms), have a proper English lunch of fish and chips, scampi and peas (garden, not mushy). Then back we go to stand in line for the bus that will take us to Warner Brothers Studio.
Bus leaves at 2, we’re in line (and quite a ways back, I might add) at 1:30. We begin to move forward and – drama! They are examining tickets (it’s sold out) and a couple at the front of the line is turned away – he’s embarrassed, she’s crying, he’s trying to hug her, but she’s having none of it. We can’t figure that one out – did they have the wrong day? Wrong time? (the tickets can be a little confusing if you don’t read them correctly.) Who knows, all we know is that we would be crying too if we missed our chance to go see the studio – since this is our only day!
So, all about the Harry Potter express! Double decker bus – 1 1/2 hour ride out into the way far reaches of the London suburbs to…..the Warner Brothers studios. This is where every Harry Potter movie was filmed and they’ve set up most of the most memorable props and stages for us to tour. Oh boy!!
We get there around 3:30; our tickets say we should go in between 4:00 and 4:15 – but we ask if we can go now and they say yes. Yes! The adventure begins! First we’re corralled into a line that snakes past Harry’s cupboard under the stairs….
…then we end up in a room with electronic images of different movie posters and a short intro to the studio. Next its off to a theater where we get additional introductions from the cast and some of the crew. Of course, it’s the movies, so they know how to build excitement and tension….enough talking! Let’s go!
And go we do…..right up to the doors of the main hall at Hogwarts! OMG! We’re in the great hall! After that, well, you know, I’ll let the pictures tell the story – let’s just say that it was an incredible, unbelievable, goose-bump, teary eyed kind of experience. To see all the props, the make up, the costumes (including the continuity), not to mention knowing you are walking through the “real” (yeah, well, you know) sets and places where the HP stories were actually acted out. As Ed so poetically put it: Bloody Un Believable!
The mirror of erised…………..Ok – so – I’m overwhelmed just setting this blog page up. There are so many more photos, so many more things we saw, learned, experienced. Can’t even begin to explain it, but, truly, one of the highlights of our travels! Spoken like true HP fans, huh?
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