London Bridge Is Falling Down

15 March, 2014

When you have an awesome, generous and well-travelled cousin who just happens to be in the country and offers to take you travelling, what do you do? Go to London, of course!

Good old London town didn’t disappoint the second time around. We enjoyed a full day of sight-seeing, accidental nap-taking, and general touristing (if that’s even a word… nope, it’s totally not. Oh well!).

I had arrived on Friday night, so was well rested and ready to go on Saturday morning. The festivities began at the Tower of London which not only provided some great history, but housed the crown jewels… which we got to see! Granted, we basically took a tour through a giant vault – but we saw them! As if that weren’t cool enough, we then proceeded to another section of the tower and got to see some armour… of actual kings of England! Unfortunately, all of this awesome-ness was strictly anti-camera… so if your eyes long for more than my words of description, you’ll just have to come visit me and see for yourself!

After some afternoon tea, our journey proceeded to an overpriced but thoroughly enjoyable bus tour from which we got a passing glance at some more of London, enjoyed the cheesy commentary that is just obligatory on this type of thing, but most importantly, were able to get some rest for my poor cousin who was in desperate need of a kip after the many hour-ed fun fest that was the Tower of London. Unfortunately, what started off as a carefree cruise on an uncharacteristically sunny London day, soon turned into a traffic-y nightmare. We therefore tipped our hats to the sanctuary for our aching feet, but opted to abandon the wretched, street-bound thing in favour of the tube.

With the help of our much speedier, underground mode of transportation, we had arrived at the British Museum in no time. In keeping with the day’s theme of crazy, hidden (or not so hidden… advertised, actually) treasures, we were soon standing in front of the Rosetta Stone! After a few minutes, I decided to pick my jaw up off the floor in an attempt to appease the amused looks of passers-by and we shuffled along to make a dent in the no less amazing collection of ancient artefacts this museum had to offer.

After the museum, we enjoyed a great Italian dinner and headed off to the West End in search of a show. Upon finding that our last minute planning technique wasn’t exactly a winner, we decided it was actually for the best and instead headed back to the hotel where I got to meet my cousin’s co-workers, who turned out to be pretty great!

16 March, 2014

Surprised though I’m sure you all will be, one of the things I was most looking forward to when coming to England was a visit to the Leavesden Harry Potter Studio Tour. I had thought I wouldn’t be going until June when my mum visited, but fate – or an incredibly generous cousin – had different plans for me. At approximately 10 am on Sunday morning, we were rested, fed and on our way to Warner Brothers with our 11 am tickets!

Even just the entrance to that building was amazing to me.

I couldn’t believe the Weasleys’ car was just in the entry room. If nothing else, that was ample proof that whatever lay inside the actual tour was amazing enough for this artefact to not even be included. As if that weren’t enough, the Dursleys' stairs (aka Harry’s living quarters during the first book/movie) were just casually placed along the line to get in… like, seriously! What hidden treasures must lie behind those mysterious entrance doors?!

Finally, the clock hit 11 o’clock and we were through the queue. At this point, I was struggling pretty hard to contain my excitement., but deciding that the world just wasn't prepared for the true Potterhead monster that I truly am, I did my best to observe the rules of society and not go running rampant about the whole place. We were shepherded into a dark entry room that displayed the international movie posters on monitors all around the walls. When our entire group was gathered in the room, our guide greeted us and showed a brief film about the widespread impact and basic awesomeness of Harry Potter. Honestly, as much as I was soaking it all in, I just couldn’t wait for those doors to open so I could run free in my own personal heaven. Truly, I doubted that this poor building was prepared for me. Regardless, the guide continued on with her speech about what to expect. She shared that the tour took three hours on average, though guests have stayed for as little as 45 minutes to as long as 13 hours. She suggested that we find a happy medium. Though I was by no means about to drag my poor cousin around for 13 hours, I now send out an official warning to my mother for when we come back (: Perhaps my favourite bit of our greeter’s speech was when she emphasised that rabid picture taking was highly encouraged in all but a few places, one of which being in the green screen room. This was because, as she said, ‘here, we will be taking the pictures for you. You will be able to fly your own broomstick and even take home a DVD. I mean, what more could you want from your life?!’ What more, indeed.

At this point, we were lead into the next room that much resembled a theatre. When we were seated, our friendly and enthusiastic new guides expressed the enormity of we were about to experience on our tour and promptly exclaimed, ‘so what better way to prepare than by watching all eight Harry Potter movies back to back?’ As much as I was totally up for that, as the lights dimmed, we actually found ourselves watching a clip of Dan, Rupert and Emma (Harry, Ron and Hermione) introducing the set as their home and expressing their excitement to share it with the world etc. Cheesy though the video was in places, it ended up making for a rather epic lead in as the curtain raised and the doors to the Great Hall were revealed.

Because pictures are worth a thousand words, and because a thousand words probably wouldn’t even begin to cover my feelings about this day, I will now resign my typing and let you see the magic for yourself, though, of course, there are always more pictures of facebook (:

Right, so that video I mentioned previously… the one of me riding a broomstick. It is a true treasure, but probably to nobody apart from me. I am honestly hesitant to share it because – as much as I hold it dear – I can see how it could appear quite a bit more than a little cheesy. However, I will post it for the public with the simple preface that all the awkward poses/interactions were 100% prompted by the staff and were not of my own invention. With that being said, I hope you enjoy!!

Along with the video, I am also in the possession of four equally treasured pictures of me flying my broom/the Weasley car. As much as I would love to also share those, I am but a poor college student with a lack of access to such luxurious things as a scanner. Therefore, at least for now, those beauties will have to stay exclusively on my shrine. (Oops, did I really just write that? I promise I don’t actually have a shrine, people!)

Because what more could a girl want from life
than a trip to/picture with Hogwarts?

When the magic had ended - because it had to eventually - we were off to the train station!... via an actually rather lovely three mile walk. Remember that thing called the sun we had discovered on Saturday? It was back for the second day in a row! I know, crazy. Honestly, this never happens. I actually had to take my coat off at one point. Like I said, crazy.

When we had reached the train station, there was nothing left but to enjoy the brief train ride, grab some dinner at the Feathers pub, gather up my stuff at the hotel, and make our way to the Victoria Coach Station in London.