Ok so we will start at the beginning of today. Just be warned, I did A LOT today, both in London and at the Harry Potter Studio Tour, so it will be a rather lengthy blog with lots of photos. I'm pretty pleased with how much I was able to squeeze in. Ok here we go... First up I got my London Pass at the Euston Station Visitor Center next to my hotel. The pass gets me into a lot of the museums/attractions/etc and most importantly it allows you to use the Hop-On/Off Bus around London. London seems fairly easy to navigate but unlike Paris, things are much further apart than they appear. Since I had to be back to my hotel by 4-4:30pm I didn't really have time to wander the streets with the potential for getting lost. So the bus worked perfectly for that. Even though I didn't plan to go to many attractions, between the helpfulness of the bus and the spots I did hit, the London Pass was definitely worth it. First up we went south, passing Trafalgar Square without all the PRIDE parade fortifications up, then headed east to pass the Royal Courts of Justice and onto Fleet Street (which reminded me of Sweeney Todd). There were a lot of cute, very old pubs including The Tipperary which was built in 1605 and even managed to survive the Great Fire of London in 1666.
After this I hopped off the bus at the next stop, St. Paul's Cathedral. Because it was Sunday it was free to enter (usually around £18-20) but you couldn't wander through the entire church, just the front third or so, since the rest was being set up for the next service. I was fine with that since I was still able to take pictures of the main parts. It's beautiful and apparently on select Sundays (not today, the next ones are in July) you can actually go up into the dome and look down through to the service area below. It sounded really neat but unfortunately it was not available this time around.
After this stop I hopped back on the bus and we drove across the London Bridge with a view of Tower Bridge on our left. (The Golden Bus Tours I was on have 5 different colored lines with slightly varying routes so that you can do more scenic or more direct, depending on your preference.) We went south past Borough Market and around the area where The Clink used to stand. We also passed the Shard, a very modern, sharp looking tower, before coming back up to go north across Tower Bridge.
Our next stop was the Tower of London so I hopped off there and used my London Pass to get in. There were medieval areas of the walls, the raven mews, and the White Tower which houses the "Line of Kings" exhibition showing old suits of armor and weapons used then. A great Game of Thrones reference was The Dwarf and The Giant, with suits of armor for each.
After this was the line for the Crown Jewels. **Disclaimer: If you go here and WANT to see the jewels, do it first. I did not but was there early, the line gets really bad the longer you wait.** When I joined the line it didn't seem too bad and it was moving fairly well. What you can't see is that they delay the actual jewel viewing until the very end, so its akin to a Disneyland ride, where you wait in the same amount of line inside as well, just with random facts and pictures on the walls trying to distract you. To top it off you aren't even allowed to take pictures of the jewels so I would say that if the line is looking long, I'd skip it. By the time I got to the end, I wasn't really sure if it was worth the wait. Here are the pictures I got (if you want more Google: Crown Jewels).
After this I hopped back on the bus and made my way down to Shakespeare's Globe theatre. Unfortunately I had read that their tours (included in my London Pass) went every half hour. But when I arrived just before noon I was told that today they had stopped at 11:30 because they were using the theatre and that they would resume at normal times every half hour tomorrow. So that is unfortunate because if I go tomorrow I will have to pay since my pass is only good for the one day (you can buy multiple days but I thought I'd only need the one). Plus it's a hassle to get that far on my own. But if I can manage to hop onto a bus and just show todays ticket then maybe I can get a free one-way ride and then I can visit the Globe that way tomorrow. It's a possibility but not a definite anymore. I did get one pic of it as I crossed the river. (white building with the thatched roof.)
The next bus took me back over to the Big Ben and Parliament area where I visited Churchill's War Rooms (recommended to me by Tyler). These were really neat and had an audio guide included (all of this covered in the Pass). There was a ton of information about the different rooms and how they lived at the time as well as an entire museum dedicated to Churchill which even has one of his Havana cigars. I have lots of pictures but I've tried to narrow it down to the main ones.
I walked to Westminster Abbey from here and similar to St. Pauls, they have service all day on Sundays. Unfortunately they keep the Abbey closed completely in between these services. So I was unable to go inside. But that's not a big deal to me. I know what the inside of all these churches look like. So the outside pics are mine, the inside ones I stole from the internet for your enjoyment. I think the last one is Will & Kate's wedding (Duke & Duchess of Cambridge).
I walked to Buckingham Palace from here, only a 15 minute walk. It was finally getting nice outside with the sun starting to peak out fully. Most of the morning was overcast and the wind today made it rather chilly by normal standards (though locals were saying it was pleasant). The Queen is still residing in the Palace until the end of July when she goes to the summer palace until the beginning of October. When she is away you can take tours of Buckingham but not while she is in residence. I was ok with that. I didn't see the full changing of the guard (supposed to happen at 11:30am only) but I did see a small guard change. Other than that and the gilding of the gate, its not a fancy looking palace from the outside.
That was my final stop before riding the bus back to my hotel. On the way I saw the Wellington Arch, the Queen Elizabeth Gate at Hyde Park, the Marble Arch and St. Mary's Hospital. We also passed by Paddington Station (home of Paddington Bear).
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`,`,`,`,`,`I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT I AM UP TO NO GOOD `,`,`,`,`,
From here I got back to the hotel and got ready for my other and slightly more important half of the day, HARRY POTTER!!!!!!! My tour/entry time was at 6:30pm but I was supposed to arrive a little early to pick up my ticket at will call and it's a 15m shuttle from the train station to the studio. But it's at Watford Junction station, I'm at London-Euston station, and that's 20m. It sounds complicated but it was all fairly straight forward and out of excitement plus nervousness that I might miss it, I arrived almost an hour early to the studio. Fortunately they were nice and let me start in the 6:00pm tour to get a jump start. While you wait in line for the tour to start you get to view Harry's cupboard under the stairs.
So all of the costumes and props and items are all legitimate things used in the movies, not just replicas. Some of the "scenes" were not actually in that location for filming but some of them were and have had detailed items added from various movies. I think at this point it will just be easier to post all the photos. There is no point in describing them. If you don't know Harry Potter you wouldn't understand it if I tried to describe it anyway (and you should go buy the books, movies or audiobooks ASAP if you want to remain my friend). I do have to admit, just so that everyone understands the scope of this...I cried when I got to the studio, and then again as the tour began, and then again drinking butterbeer at the halfway point (with a slightly blurry pic, my apologies on that). I grew up with Harry Potter. I remember being read the first chapter of the Book 1 by our librarian as a recommended book in 4th grade. So I began reading them just after Book 2 was released and I vividly remember being in Singapore to be able to buy Book 3. The same happened for the rest of the series, and I was even fortunate enough to work the book release of Book 7 at Borders Bookstore in Boulder. That was a fun night, ending around 3:15am when I promptly went home and devoured the book, foregoing sleep to be able to get to the end. This was my childhood and I was able to grow up with Harry Potter, following the releases of the books and movies. Today marked 19 years since the first book was released to the public. At the end of Book 7 is a part that begins: 19 years later... That is what today is. 19 years after Harry Potter first started, I was at the studio tour. It was very special and probably one of the happiest times of my life, so I was not surprised that I was emotional, and I'm not ashamed/embarrassed. It's not like I broke down sobbing, but I definitely teared up. Because honestly, today was magical. So enjoy.
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GREAT HALL:
RANDOM PIECES FROM AROUND HOGWARTS. MY FELLOW WITCHES AND WIZARDS WILL RECOGNIZE EVERYTHING.
For a short time only (til early Sept) they have Privet drive available to see and walk through, though the facade was the only part actually used for filming. I don't know why it was a limited time, but that's what they told us. I've made the pics into collages to make it easier. I like the plaque for Dudley. But you can see the flying letters and the outside of Harry's cupboard.
Moving into makeup special effects and concept art/drawings as well as smaller scale plans and replicas of buildings, including Hogwarts.
A room of wand boxes with names of all the actors (and maybe even everyone who was a part of the movies). The lady there knew all of them. You name a movie character and she knows their real name and can point out where their wand box is with her laser pointer. I found Harry Potter and Sirius Black (Daniel Radcliffe and Gary Oldman). Then the gift shop is amazing. I got myself a wand and some pajamas pants (Gryffindor) as well as some goodies for friends. Also you can see me flying the Weasley's Ford Anglia and riding a broomstick.
If you have made it all the way to the end, you are a rockstar! Thanks for sticking with it. I've had a blast so far in London and I still have most of tomorrow. My tentative plan is to try the Globe Theater again, find somewhere to have tea and scones and crumpets (I'm not really sure what a crumpet is, but I know its something you have in the UK, so I'm doing it). And maybe wander around Charing Cross. It looked like a cool place and I want to have a bit of a wander to explore the shops. Plus I have some gift buying for people. Not so action packed as today but it'll be nice to have a bit of a rest day here. My only regret for this trip is that I couldn't share it with Jacob, but that gives me a great reason to have to come back! Good night everyone.
`,`,`,`,`,`, MISCHIEF MANAGED!`,`,`,`,`,`,`,
After this I just wandered south on Tottenham Court Road until I got to the Charing Cross area. I walked past a lot of cool little shops, and bought a few touristy gifts for people. I also got a selfie with the new HP play that is coming out, without tons of people around since it was earlyish on a weekday morning.
Behind the theater is the Soho district of London (the original Soho, though no one is quite sure what it stands for). This is the area where the main part of the PRIDE parade was held and it was, at one time, the seedier sex district, though most of those shops have been replaced with more modern bars and nightclubs. It was pretty quiet this morning but it was still fun to walk through.
Continuing west through Soho you get to the super ritzy part of town, Bond Street and Dover Street. This is where my tea hotel, the Brown's Hotel was located, but I was a bit early so I had a wander around some of the little arcades and streets. These boutiques were fancier than the fanciest store names that I've heard of. Lots of jewelry, watches, mens leather shoes, and fountain pens.
After wasting a fair amount of time I decided to head to the hotel, though it was only noon. Fortunately I was able to get seated early and enjoy my fantastic tea and pastry setup. So its around £48 per person if I remember correctly but that is unlimited tea, pastries, sandwiches and scones. I was not able to eat everything they brought me but it was all delicious. I had a white needle and rosebud tea to start followed by a green jasmine tea. For the food we had 3 different kinds of finger sandwich on the bottom plate (egg and cucumber, roast beef and cucumber and salmon and cucumber...which I skipped). The second tier had little bread buns with curried chicken or cream and mince (not 100% sure on that description of the second one, but it was really good). Then the top tier was the desserts. Wimbledon started today so they had a brand new dessert to commemorate that. The two tennis balls are white chocolate truffles with a white chocolate ganache inside, a lime curd bar to the right (going clockwise), green sponge cake with cream and jelly center and chocolate racket, a strawberry and basil tart, and a chocolate macaron with raspberry filling. All the desserts were very well made. I preferred the strawberry/basil tart and the macaron. After this came the scones (2 regular and 2 raisin) with clotted cream and berry jam. I was stuffed at this point but it finished with some fresh strawberries with cream on top. During this whole time in the tea room there was a live pianist playing. The music was very soothing and occasionally I recognized songs (all Elton John). Absolutely worth the money. Everything was fantastic and the server/hostess was really nice and talked to me during her down time, even offering to take my picture since it's hard to do that when you travel on your own.
It was around 1:30pm when I was finished so I needed to head back in the general direction of the hotel since I planned to walk. Nearly due north of the hotel (and slightly west) by 35m walking is the Sherlock Holmes Museum, located at 221B Baker Street (of course). I thought it would be cool to at least walk by there to see the outside. It was a fun trip up the streets to get to Baker Street. I love seeing the tiny twisting roads and old pubs.
When I made it to Sherlock's House I went in the store and decided that I had the time to look so I bought a ticket and got in the line to wait for entry into his house. It's a tiny, narrow, 4 1/2 story house so they can't let many people in at once. The good thing is that it's quite small so it really only takes 10-20m TOPS to look through it. Once you go up from the ground floor to the first level you see his study and bedroom areas. The second level has little memorabilia, like the hat and pipe, and an office of sorts. The next level after that had wax figures re-enacting famous scenes from his different cases, with little book excerpts that describe each one. And the top half-level was a little storage and bathroom closet. It was all quite cute. And then of course there is the store downstairs that sells all sorts of fun memorabilia. I'd say it was definitely worth it, especially over the Globe, I'm glad I chose this.
The man in the picture with me was the "bouncer"/ticket checker and he and I had a great conversation about the BBC series SHERLOCK and how much we like it, and our favorite parts/episodes. He was quite fun to talk to. Once I left the museum I had to get back to my hotel to pick up my luggage and then get to the train station. It was another 30m walk to get back to my hotel (around the Euston Station area) and on the way I passed Madame Tussaud's wax museum. I've never really been into visiting the wax museums, I know they have them all over. I find it quite creepy honestly. But here's a pic of the outside.
All in all I'd say my trip to London was a success. Honestly if I had only done Harry Potter and nothing else it would still have been a success. But I was able to visit pretty much everything I had planned on. Swapping the Globe for Sherlock was even better than my original plan, and a few food places that I had picked out as options didn't end up happening, but I hadn't really planned on a fancy afternoon tea experience, so I'm ok with how that all turned out. I definitely plan to come back and delve even deeper into the slightly less touristy areas, and explore outside the city like Windsor Castle and Stonehenge, as well as travel to Scotland and Ireland. I'll probably need 2-3 weeks for that trip. And I'll need Jacob too! Now that I've been there I pretty much know my way around the city, so basically...I'm a pro! Only 2 more weeks of work left (9 days!!! not that I'm counting or anything...) and my dad arrives this Saturday. Can't believe this trip is coming to an end! Goodnight for now.
