England. Day 6. I Solemnly Swear We Are Up to No Good.
We woke up Tuesday morning and headed to our final breakfast in the Holborne Dining Room. It was good as usual.
Then Tzvi took the girls to the Waterstones down the block because he regretted not buying the tote bag when we had gone to the flagship store. I checked out of the hotel and made sure everything was set because today the plan was to go to the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden for the Harry Potter studio tour! It was a little complicated because we needed to get to Harry Potter and then our next hotel, but also needed to deal with our luggage and didn’t want to have to pay for a driver to sit for four hours while we were in Harry Potter. So we came up with a plan: We would take the train with Inbar to Harry Potter (yes, very adventurous of us), Shir would stay back today and hang with her family (she is not a Harry Potter fan), and then she would come back to the hotel and take the taxi with our luggage and pick us up at Harry Potter. I spoke to the concierge and they said we were good to go!
Our train was 11:39 and we planned to leave the hotel around 11 (we needed to take a cab to the train station). Problem was that Tzvi was still in the bookstore at 11. When he finally got back and we asked for a cab, we had to wait over ten minutes! This whole trip we’ve never had to wait more than 2 minutes and now when we actually needed to be somewhere we had to wait. Anyway, we got in the cab, sat in a lot of traffic, and arrived at the station at 11:35. Inbar was waiting for us outside the station and we all ran to the train. We made it with a minute to spare, and those trains leave on time. At 11:38 the doors were already beeping for an 11:39 departure.
The ride was about 25 minutes. From there we went outside in the rain and transferred to the free WB Studio bus, which was another half hour or so. So, it was a shlep, but we saved some money we could spend on souvenirs! [Tzvi: it wasn’t “some” money – it was over 100 pounds.] I think we were the last ones on the bus and got the very last row. I’m sure I don’t have to say it, but it was hot on the bus. Tzvi and Inbar felt like this was the perfect time to pull out the leftover cheese from Borough Market, cos you know, stale, stuffy air and cheese always go great together.
As you walk to the building you walk through large wands of the main characters. Then you pass statues of the Wizard Chess pieces from the first movie (like the actual pieces used in the film). It was very cool. The girls were crapping out a bit, which I had been nervous about, but we all just needed to reset and each lunch.
We had about an hour until we could enter the tour, so we had lunch in the food hall. The kids had pizza, Tzvi had a veggie burger and I had a tuna sandwich. We also got a vegan pie that came with mashed potatoes and gravy and was delicious. I’m really loving the vegan pies this trip. 10/10 lunch.
At 1:45 we got on line and started our tour! It was a great experience. We spent a solid three hours just on the tour and that was with barely reading things. Basically you walk through these giant buildings, which might have actually been soundstages, and are just filled with original sets and props. We walked through the Great Hall, Gringotts bank, saw Voldemort’s grave, lots of costumes, and some smaller props like the sorcerer’s stone, the time turner and the golden snitch used in the last movie. Hallie was particularly excited about the mirror of Erised because she had just watched the first movie. It was also really cool to see how they used forced perspective for certain things. For example, they had the hallway from the leaky cauldron from the third movie. The actual hallway is really short, but it gets smaller toward the back, which creates the illusion that it’s actually a long hallway.
At the halfway mark on the tour you get to walk through the real Hogwarts Express, and then there’s an outdoor courtyard where they have the house on Privet Drive, the Knight Bus and some other bigger outdoor props. They also sell food and butterbeer. We got two types of butterbeer, neither of which were good.
There were some guides scattered around giving tours so we could overhear things at different points. One note I overheard was about Voldemort’s costume and how he had seven shades of green costumes in the movies, and as each horcrux was destroyed he would wear a lighter shade of green.
We did our shopping in the gift shop. Both girls got Hermione wands, but there wasn’t that much else we wanted to buy and I think you can buy all the same stuff at the Harry Potter store in Chelsea, or the Harry Potter store at the Orlando airport. Tzvi picked out a pen, which he put on the stroller and then walked off to take a work call. As we were walking out Tzvi realized I never paid for the pen, so I had to go back and pay before I was designated as a shoplifter. Then Inbar, the girls and I went to get a milkshake and ice cream at the café. You had the option to order a Hapee Birthday Harry cake, but you needed to order at least 72 hours in advance. I only called 48 hours in advance, so they couldn’t make it. I don’t think Tzvi will forgive me. [Tzvi: it just made the tour more immersive, as now I know how Harry Potter felt on every birthday he spent with the Dursleys.]
During the tour I had been in touch with Shir, who told me that the car with the luggage left without her. Thankfully it was only about 10 minutes out so it quickly turned around and got her. Around 5 she arrived at Harry Potter so we headed out. We said our goodbyes to Inbar, who would not be joining us for the next leg. That was sad.
Then we were off to the countryside!