Harry Potter Studio Tour ~ London Day 4

So, today’s post will be a short on words, but image heavy  – It is 23:29 (now after uploading it is 0:42) here, and has been a fun, full and exciting day, and tomorrow I catch a early coach to go to the Isle of Wight, so I don’t have a ton of time to write. Hopefully I will be able to write more tomorrow when I am on the bus.

I started my journey early to Watford Junction to catch the bus to the Harry Potter Studio Tour, and then began my “magical” journey. The tour was very cool, but very crowded.

From the beginning entry onto the bus to Leavesden the Potter magic is everywhere. I loved the entry lobby, and especially the fact that they had Starbucks – so it combined some of my favorite things into one place, Harry Potter and Starbucks.

I made an interactive Panorama of the lobby minus the bajillion random people.

The crowd watching, as is the case at most Harry Potter events was epic, but it was very cool to have the chance to immerse myself into the world of the films. The props, costumes, artwork, character models, sets and vehicles were AMAZING to see.

The tour says it lasts about 3 hours, and I found that I spent about 4.5 hours, just taking my time, reading everything, watching the commentary and just really exploring. It was a one way tour, so you couldn’t go back once you had left an area. The most striking exhibit was last, the scale model of Hogwarts – IT WAS PHENOMENAL! The most anitclimatic was the Diagon Alley – and I blame that on the Universal Parks experience – because it is so big, and real there, the few shops and models in the “real film” Diagon Alley were just so similar and small it was hard to get super pumped.

Overall the tour was a wonderful experience, and I was so glad I decided to do it.

Because so many of my friends are Potter fans, I am uploading the entire album to this post for you to enjoy. I will caption some of my favorites and odd pictures later, and to help those that are not Potter people. 🙂

When I got back to London, I decided I should probably have some sort of food, but at that point most places were closed, so I took a risk and tried an Asian restaurant by the hostel.  I will say, this “risk” was made easier by the fact that London has this great food hygene  scale posted outside each restaurant.

So I went in, and had Jasmine Tea: , and decided to be a bit adventurous, as the served Filipino cuisine. I started with Crispy Seaweed (I promise, it was better than it sounds):  and Spicy Fried Rice with Mechado: . (If you, like me, have never heard of Mechado, here is the menu description:  .

It was a yummy late lunch/dinner.

Then I came back to the Hostel, with the intention of Face-timing folks (sorry Mandy!), blogging and getting ready for my day trip tomorrow, but instead got side tracked and socialized with my roommates, 2 lovely Australians, and some other folks in the hostel – we had a great time, shared lots of laughs and funny stories. They both bought one way tickets to Europe, and are just staying here for a bit working here and there and traveling. It is a pretty cool concept, and certainly has appeal (1 of them is a teacher, and has several short-term jobs lined up in different countries) but I am not sure I could be THAT free-spiritied, but I guess you never know! 🙂

Hopefully I will give you a good update tomorrow on the Isle of Wight, Shanklin, and the Osborne House! 🙂

Author: Merry

I am a teacher, techie, avid traveler and explorer. View all posts by Merry