England: Happy Harryween!

(For those of you who haven't read the Harry Potter books or seen the movies, this post will probably not interest you or make much sense.  You probably just want to skip on ahead.  Sorry.  And, if you've looked through my album on Facebook, you've already seen all these photos, plus so many more, because I only put the highlights here...)

When thecamelridingcowgirl was visiting Marseille back in September, we planned the next part of my trip to England: touring the Harry Potter Experience at Warner Studios in London.  Since I would be in England over Halloween, it seemed like the perfect day to go!  Creedance joined us, as did Soul Twin, who lives in London and could easily meet up with us at the Studios.

I loved this quote that was displayed right at the beginning of the tour.  For me, the thing I love about the Harry Potter series is that it is not only a fantastic story that is filled with fun, laughter, adventure, great characters--it also has some truly wonderful themes of (listed below) loyalty, courage, redemption, (and not listed below) friendship, love, family, sacrifice, and good triumphing over evil.  I honestly cannot think of any other story I know that has all of that in one package.  And that is why I love Harry Potter.

We got to watch a few videos before they opened the grand doors for us to enter.  Oh what excitement this spot held as we waited for those huge doors to open!

The dining hall was decorated for Halloween.  In the movies, they used all real food for the scenes in the dining hall.  That's alot of food!!!

The dining hall.  They had costumes from each house by each table.  Surprisingly, of the four of us, there was no Gryffindor represented.  Soul Twin is a Slytherin (don't judge her for it, haha!), Creedance is a Hufflepuff, thecamelridingcowgirl is a Ravenclaw, and I could be Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw...that day I decided to be more Hufflepuff.  :)

 As we wandered through the various sets, there were props galore everywhere!  One of the things I was most surprised by were the wigs.  I don't know why, but it never crossed my mind that the actors wore wigs.  I truly thought Helena Bonham Carter's hair was real.

I took a selfie in the Mirror of Erised.  Those other tourists made it not work, so I didn't get to see my truest heart's desire in it.  Bummer.

I hung out at the Gryffindor Common Room for a long time.  We'd ordered the audio guide (sooooo  totally worth the extra 5£!).  All along the tour, it gave an extra thing to listen to, and then usually 3 small videos to watch too.  Everything was so interesting!

This thing was HUGE.

I loved looking at all the props and especially the attention to detail!  This is the Triwizard Cup, from my favorite book (#4, The Goblet of Fire).  The latch on top of the golden egg was a small owl!

Dumbledore's office, where I also spent a lot of time just looking at all the things.

The Pensieve.   Some days I wish I had one to dump all my thoughts into.  I suppose that's what a journal is for.

When I finally emerged from Dumbledore's office, I found my friends chatting it up on a bench.  Neat to see my worlds colliding.

Snape's classroom.  The wands in the cauldrons were stirring by themselves.

The videos at this section of the tour were really interesting, because they talked about how they filmed all the various kinds of flying scenes: using green screens, which were used for so much more than just flying throughout the films.  I had no idea how much of the movies were filmed on green screens!

At the Burrow, you kind of just kept hoping that Mrs. Weasley or Fred and George would walk right up.  

Again, amazement at the attention to detail.

Self-knitting blanket was knitting away!!!

Because it was Halloween, there were Death Eaters all over the place and sneaking up on people.  (Princess William had gone during another time of the year, and we compared notes over what was different in my tour from hers.  She said the Death Eaters were only in Diagon Alley when she went.)  This one here snuck up on me just a couple of minutes after I took this picture.  I turned around and she was right over my shoulder.  EEK.

You could pet Nagini if you wanted to.  I did not.  The Soul Twin, being a Slytherin, of course wanted to and did.

Halfway through the tour, there's a bit that is outside, and you can stop for Butterbeer.  I'd been looking forward to this part.  I expected it to be a hot drink, and was surprised that it was not.

It had two parts: a fizzy part on bottom that tasted like creme soda, and then an added foam on top that tasted like butterscotch.

I loved the foam, and could have had more of that.  The fizzy...meh.  Now, if they made a hot drink of just the butterscotchy foam:  YUM.

The gorgeous wonky bridge.  SOOO glad I got to see it.  SOOO glad it wasn't up high like in the movie!

Looking at the Potter's house.

Diagon Alley.  At this point, I was just so happy.  I'd expected the tour to have the dining hall, Diagon Alley, butterbeer, and maybe Hogsmeade.  There was so much more than I ever expected, and I'd already had such a fantastic time, that by the time we got to Diagon Alley, I was giddy.

For Ollivander's Wand Shop, they had a wandbox for every person who had worked on the movies.

We looked through the names until we found J.K.Rowling's box.  I thought this was a cool touch.

At the end was a model of Hogwarts.  First of all, my pictures do no justice to show just how BIG it was.  It was three floors tall.  (You entered at the second floor, and the third floor was the height above us, and then you could follow it around to the first floor.)  The lights kept changing so that you could see it in daylight or moonlight, which was really cool.  The music playing was beautiful and victorious and brought all the happy feelings that the end of the books/movies give when GOOD WINS.

We learned that they used this model for filming the shots (especially the aerial ones) of the castle.  I'm now amazed by how movies are made.  I just don't ever give it much thought...but this tour changed that!  Anyway, we probably spent at least 30 minutes in this room, just staring at the castle.

Me and thecamelridingcowgirl, wearing house scarfs that she made.  So glad to have had another travel adventure with her!!!

"From that moment on, Hermoine Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them."

I said goodbye to her and Creedance and went home with the Soul Twin.  As one of Harry Potter's themes is friendship, it was great to tour the studio with friends, and to introduce friends to one another.  These girls are mountain-troll-fighting-friends, and I'm so thankful for them.