I can’t believe that this day has come! It’s bittersweet because it is our last full day in the UK, but it’s also one of the most anticipated days that we’ve been looking forward to for months! So, I dedicated an entire blog to it…

Yes! Harry Potter Studio Tour!!!!!!!!

I don’t know if its obvious or not, but Jake and I are super Harry Potter nerds. The day that we booked our flight to London those many months ago, we had been plotting to go to the WB Studio tour. Our UK buddies jumped to the task and nailed down tickets. But even back then, they were all sold out and the only day and time they could get was our last one here. We were just thrilled to get em at all! And since then, I have been eagerly awaiting today, dubbed Harry Potter Day!

To recap, we just finished celebrating wedding mania with our buddies. After all of the wedding guests departed, however, we were on a mission; to peer-pressure Adam into watching all of the HP movies, starting from numero uno. Can you believe this poor man has not seen any of them!??!?! IT’S BLASPHEMY I TELL YOU!

Though we are all feeling a bit sluggish, we managed to stay awake through the first THREE films before calling it a night. Well, I say “we” as in Jake and I. I’m pretty sure Abi and Adam made it through #4 as well because they’re badasses.

The following morning dawned and marked the last full day we get to spend with our amazing friend’s in their amazing home. The only big thing on the agenda is the tour, which is later tonight at 630PM. So that leaves us about 10 hours to get our movie-watching on; in-between bouts of packing for an early AM departure. But I don’t want to think about that…

Some might say this is a silly way to spend their last day in a new country, but honestly, after all of the travels of the last month, we were delighted to spend the day with our friends, keeping it mellow. Jake pretty much acted as server, heating up food via leftovers from the night before or heating up pizzas, finding all sorts of goodies like crisps and cookies, and of course, cake!

We managed to get through all but the last film before we had to get ready to leave. Abi suspected that if we show up early, we might be able to go through our tour early. Normally the studio closes at 9PM and they say you need about 3 hours (and our designated time only leaves us about 2). And knowing us, we will need as much time as possible!

Now, Jake and I have been lucky to visit the Universal Studio’s in Florida which is really amazing. Plus, we learned some great history of JK Rowling and her inspiration for the books traveling through Scotland. So we are primed.

We arrived an hour early and thankfully/luckily were able to enter! I wasted absolutely ZERO time from the moment we stepped on the lot snapping photos of everything. The first thing you can see are some large statues of chess pieces and walls that are papered with gigantic Daily Prophet clippings.

Jake had to drag me inside behind the rest of our group. It was like Disney Land for Abi and I! We walked down a long corridor that was also papered in pull-quotes from the novels and marauder-map style writings and on into a large open room. In its center was a gigantic Tri-Wizard Cup glowing blue and throngs of people everywhere.

This is not technically the start of the tour yet, but there was plenty to see, including a giant gift shop, a small cafe, and a few smaller set pieces, including Harry’s first bedroom in the Cupboard under the Stairs.

There was a line at the beginning, from which they only allow a set number of people in at one time, for crowd-control. We managed to squeeze in with the group who was obviously waiting for some awhile. Lucky us! After a short introductory film, we were whisked into a magic world, beginning with The Great Hall.

The first of many cool things that we learned is that the set for the Great Hall did not have a ceiling. It was exposed to rafters and lights (see above) and instead they used a 1/8 scale-model during the few times that the ceiling was filmed, generally with some magical effects that were crafted in post-production.

From here we could pretty much move at our own pace, and so we took our sweet time, trying to absorb absolutely everything. It was definitely sensory overload, but in a really good way. Many of the actual film sets were featured, such as the Gryffindor common room, the Potions Dungeon, Dumbledore’s Office, Diagon Alley, Hagrid’s Hut, The Burrow, so on down the list. If you haven’t read any of these books and know absolutely nothing of these things, then you are probably bored already!

We were all surprised at how small the sets were. Don’t get me wrong, they are super cool. But walking through them, they just look so tiny as compared to how they look on film. Even the Great Hall felt small. The boy’s dormitory was TINY, though I suppose the characters were all children at that time. Some of the sets were only half-complete so that they could accommodate for camera’s and character’s moving about. Its all very ingenious.

The devil is in the details and no detail went unturned. The costumes were phenomenal as were the sets and ALL of the props. Holy Cow there were PROPS GALORE.

To give the actor’s a chance to get into character, there were hundreds upon hundreds of beautifully designed and detailed props created that may never even be seen on camera. We took a look at one of the potion’s books as well as a few potions ingredients, all of which looked so detailed you would never guess they weren’t real. The book was designed with actual potion recipes that you would find out of the movies and/or books. From Leaflets to candy wrappers to school papers and potion bottles, there were piles of artifacts that true fans would really appreciate.

As we walked along, we couldn’t resist stopping to take a few [thousand] photos. I couldn’t tell you what my favorite part was, because it was all so amazing. I guess ONE favorite was the Forbidden Forest, which was actually quite a large portion of the tour. Not to mention learning some of the studio magic in how this was built and filmed. I’ll give you one little tidbit: The backdrop that was used in filming was actually a painting, which had a more magical look and fit better with the style of filming than a realistic or production-made version.

Some of the sets were so large that they were built outside. This includes Privet Drive, The Hogwarts Castle Bridge and the Knight Bus. However don’t let it fool you, Privet Drive is actually not a fully-built home, though it looks like one. It’s another one of those movie-magic things. Same with the Hogwarts Castle Bridge…it’s only a portion of the bridge that was used in filming and surrounded with green screens to place at proper scale with the castle surrounding it.

The Hogwarts Express and King’s Cross station was in another building all of its own. And we learned that they only ever built ONE train that was used in every movie. It was THIS (look below) ONE!

You could walk through the train to see how some of the compartments were designed in the various films. And again, the most surprising thing is the scale of this feels so tiny, but it was actually used in filming some of the scenes in the films.

Apart from the train were areas with varying layouts to accommodate for different angles. One whole side of the station looked almost like booths at a restaurant with a big green screen behind it. This allowed them to film side-shots and to show special effects out of the train windows.

From this point, the tour changes from the large sets to more of the details of production and animatronics and technology to bring to life all of the non-human characters in the Harry Potter world. Some characters, like Fang, Hedwig, Crookshanks, and Mrs. Norris, were live-animals, yet there were several different animals who played each character. I think there were a total of 6 Fang’s and 4 Crookshanks and maybe a handful of Hedwig’s all of which would perform a different stunt (apparently its hard to train an owl to do more than one thing)? But then some characters required additional help to come to life, either via makeup or completely artificial, though you would hardly know it after you see the kinds of detail put into them.

The very last portion of the tour gives you a 360 degree view of Hogwarts Castle and grounds. Now this was by far the most stunning because you could walk around it from above and below, as the lighting adjusts to see how it looks at every single angle.

This is the most wild thing, because this castle is the ONLY one that was filmed in every movie. A Castle that is a tiny scale of the real thing, and they even go on to show how they would take a section of the castle (or the whole thing) and add levels of effects, weather, and then shrink down the actors to fit to the scale of the castle so that it is actual size. Its mind-blowing stuff!

And then we ended up in the last section of the tour, i.e. the gift shop. It was full to the brim with tons of swag, some of which you can probably find anywhere and some that looked really rare. All of it was kind of expensive, so Jake and I kept ourselves in check and only bought a chocolate frog and an ornament.

Okay so that was the best tour ever. Can we go again? Seriously, I would do a second round if we had time.

But alas it’s time to leave. We were all in very happy spirits and excited about how amazing that was, and for the prospect of Indian food for dinner. We thought that we would watch the last Harry Potter (so Adam could be all caught up) while we ate.

All-in-all, the perfect last day in the UK (even though we went to bed way too late!).

The Longest Day

Is it morning already? Jake’s alarm woke us up at 530AM, which normally wouldn’t be SO bad, but we didn’t go to sleep until after midnight, so it’s a tough one. Plus, its going to be a REALLY long travel day.

We were both a bit grouchy and tired, but did try to sit in the lap of this luxurious warm bed one last time drinking coffee and tea before last-minute packing. Our bag feels a lot heavier than it did coming here, I hope that its under 20kg (which is the weight limit).

Abi and Adam were both up at 6AM and drove us to the bus station at 615AM. It was a quick drive so we sat and chatted before saying our final goodbye’s. Aww we’re going to miss these guys and even moreso I’m jealous they get to go back home to bed!

We waited maybe 5 minutes before our National Express bus came to pick us up. There were only 3 other people aboard, and thankfully it didn’t smell bad like the last one. We each took seats across the row from each other, and I promptly fell asleep for the next 2 hours. It was perfect since that’s how long the drive was from High Wycombe to Gatwick airport.

You never know with foreign airports how the whole system is going to work out. I recall when we arrived here that the place felt like a hodgepodge and a bit of a maze. But this time around, it seemed really straight-forward. Our airline let us check in without issue, and even though our bag was 2kg overweight they didn’t care.

Then security, which is usually a nightmare, went about as smooth and quickly as it ever has. It kind of reminded me of a ride at an amusement park, with each station clearly marked for people to stand in and wait their turn and then move along before getting on the ride. It was so fast and easy we were through in less than 5 minutes!

We had 2 hours to kill and thought we might explore the airport, but soon decided that it was too crowded and crazy. So instead, we sat at a Starbucks to wait before boarding our plane. The first flight to Reykjavik, Iceland is only 3 hours. This feels like NOTHING! It went by so quickly that I was shocked when we landed, what felt like 30 minutes later. I guess I fell asleep again!

Once in Iceland, we had less than an hour to catch our next flight. But that also means we will have to get food at the airport, otherwise we won’t be eating for awhile. So we bolted to the only food-store open, and grabbed the first things we spotted; including 2 hot dogs, a chicken salad and ham and cheese sandwiches with 2 waters. It was almost $50, which we didn’t realize until we got home and did the currency exchange! Oh well.

We barely had enough time to eat, take a wee break and then get onto the next flight. We flew the super-cheap airline, and so our seats were pretty uncomfortable. The 6.5 hours went by SO SLOOOOW compared to the last one. But, the weather was pretty good and the sun was out the whole time and could actually see Greenland. Maybe we’ll go there next?