Warner Brothers Studio Tour

Thursday morning we got up early, checked out of the London hotel and left our bags with the bellman. Guess where we were headed?

The Warner Brothers Studio Tour outside of London! This site was VERY high on Amelia and John's interest list, and was probably one of the most significant reasons we chose London as one of our destinations for this trip. This tour is so popular - I booked the reservation in April, and even that far in advance several of the time slots were sold out during our time in the U.K. 

The Warner Brothers (WB) studio, the infamous location where the Harry Potter movies were filmed, is located in an outlying suburb of London. To get there we took a slow above ground subway train from a central London train station (and we learned our lesson about finding a more direct train for the return trip!) to the Watford Junction stop. From the train station we boarded a double-decker tour bus for the short ride through the town to the WB studio.

If you are a Harry Potter movie fan you likely recognize these larger-than-life chess pieces from the movies! John looks so small in comparison.

The WB studio tour was a very organized affair. The one-way path through the exhibits was carefully designed and there were detailed signs placed all around so that you could understand what you were looking at. The entrance tickets were limited on timed intervals, so once you were inside it wasn't crowded enough to be unpleasant.

The first significant site on the tour was the Great Hall that was used to film so many scenes at Hogwarts. It was really fun to stand in the Great Hall while on site though my pictures didn't capture the height and grand scale of the room. Below is a photo of some of the costumes worn by the HP characters, as organized by house (these are Gryffindor).

This exhibit explained how the studio used green screens to film the broom flying/quiddich scenes.

We got to see so many of the Hogwarts rooms from the movies.

The Hogwarts express! This is the train used in filming, and we were able to board the cars to understand the relation between what was used in filming the movie versus what you see on screen in the films.

The 9 3/4 platform scenes were actually filmed in London (King's Cross train station, I think), but this is a replica that was perfect for a photo opportunity.

The Night Bus! The bus had beds inside and was just as depicted in the movie!

One of the most memorable scenes from the early movies is when the letters from Hogwarts arrive in abundance at Harry's house.

Below is the model of Hogwarts that was used, with a green-screen, to film some of the exterior shots. This is a large-scale replica that we walked around from platforms above. The detail is amazing!

What an amazing day! John declared it his favorite activity from the entire trip!

Once back in London, we travelled by tube back to our hotel, collected our bags, and embarked on a more complicated than planned journey out to Gatwick airport. We had an early flight the next morning from London to Italy so we had plans to spend the night in an airport hotel. Little did we know when we started off in the early evening from London that there were horrendous rains/floods that day on the train path from London city to the Gatwick area that considerably slowed our journey. However, we finally arrived and enjoyed a casual dinner in our airport hotel before retiring early in preparation for the trip to Italy. 

This was also the day of the Brexit vote. What an exciting time for our family to be in the U.K! We saw so many people on the tube wearing "I voted in!" stickers on this day, so we were greatly surprised by the outcome the next morning!

London, part 3

Our third day waking up in London was our last full day in the city. We started off with a walk/taxi ride over to Harrod's, the infamous London department store. Our goal was to check out the amazing food hall in the basement level of the store. 

We saw so many beautiful things! The baked goods and fancy truffles were my favorite! Amelia and John bought some breakfast pastries for a mid-morning snack, which they enjoyed a few hours later in St James Park after we enjoyed the next stop on our itinerary...

Changing of the guard! Scott and I didn't see this ceremony when we were in London on our honeymoon and we thought the whole family would enjoy this experience. 

We started at the Horse Guards, the official entrance to St. James Park and Buckingham Palace, where there was a ceremony for the changing of the guards and horses.

Then we trekked across St. James Park to try and catch some of the Changing of the Guard Ceremony at Buckingham Palace. We enjoyed beautiful views in the park as we walked across, with the London Eye in the background!

We stopped just outside of Buckingham palace to watch the band proceed onward with the ceremony. Very cool to watch, but quite crowded at the same time. 

Next stop for the day was Hamley's, London's legendary department store. I believe it's the equivalent of the old F.A.O. Schwarz in New York. But since Amelia and John had never been in a toy store of this magnitude they were quite blown away! Add in the British flair and countless employees demonstrating toys all around the seven-story toy store and they were in visual heaven! It was total sensory overload for the adults but fun for all at the same time.

One of my favorite parts was the Lego exhibit on the top floor. Can you believe these exhibits are made entirely out of Legos? Awesome!

After Hamley's we took a taxi over to Covent Garden, a district in the city that is a fun and entertaining tourist site. There is a large public square surrounded by dozens of restaurants and shops. We shopped for souvenirs and then enjoyed the fun of eclectic street performers, including the juggler we saw below...  

...and the gold guy below. Note John standing to the left of Gold Guy. When John gave Gold Guy a pound, Gold Guy moved to a crazy position forward for several minutes. Don't know how he held that position until the next coin came along! Where is the chair to support Gold Guy's weight in the photo below?

Next we took the Tube over to the building that houses Skygarden, a fabulous observation deck, located on the top floors of the building pictured towards the right in the photo below.

I read about Skygarden on TripAdvisor before we left on our trip. I learned that Skygarden is a free public space with amazing views of London that is accessible by reservation only. The tickets to go up are free, but you have to reserve in advance for a booking in a one-hour time slot to the observation deck. We had a reservation for 4:30 on this day, perfect for a last excursion before retiring to the hotel before dinner. The views of the Thames were fabulous!

Happy hour at Skygarden! We had a great time!

 John was really into Time Lapse videos while were abroad. The day before, on our boat ride to Greenwich, we learned that the Tower Bridge only rises one or two times per day. I think it's pretty cool that John captured this moment from the outdoor viewing plaza at Skygarden during the hour that we were there!

After our visit to Skygarden we took the Tube back to our hotel, freshened up and rested a bit, and then headed out for our last meal in London. Somewhat by chance we ended up at an upscale pub that evening for one the of the best dinners we had while in London. Scott and I enjoyed fancier British Pub-style meals, while the kids ate lovely fish and chips that was higher than average quality for pub fare.

Our waiter was a lot of fun to talk with. This being the evening before the infamous Brexit vote, we asked him his thoughts on the impending outcome of the election. He proclaimed that he thought Britain would stay in the EU and his opinion was that the vote was more for show than substance. We were all certainly surprised two days later to find the outcome quite differently than he had predicted! 

London, part 2

On our second full day in London we woke up to clear skies and amazing weather! What a great day to tackle the London Eye! 

Visiting the London Eye - a giant ferris wheel on the south bank of the River Thames, the tallest public viewing point in London - was high on the kids' wish list for our trip to London. So we headed out from our hotel bright and early Tuesday morning, determined to make it there in plenty of time for the 10:00am opening. We had heard about crazy lines and wait times for the Eye and wanted to avoid wasting time waiting as much as possible. After a quick and easy tube ride from our hotel to the south bank, we were there with plenty of time before opening. In the photo below Amelia and John are sitting on pillars on the sidewalk next to the Eye.

Houses of Parliament in the background!

The "Eye" experience itself was a little Disney-esqe, in that the price for admission was crazy high and the "theme park" design was a little over the top. However, we had a smooth experience in the ticketing area and the wait first thing in the morning was reasonable. Within a half hour after opening we were on our way up and around the ferris wheel.

The passenger pods were large, able to accommodate about 25 people. There was room to walk around without being overly crowded inside. The ride itself was peaceful and enjoyable (though my stomach turned towards the top due to the height, at which Amelia told me I should relax because I was being overly-dramatic).

As you would expect, the views from all around were AMAZING!

We all spent a lot of time taking photos and enjoying the scenery.

After one revolution around the Eye, we boarded a river boat down the Thames for a day trip to Greenwich. Scott and I enjoyed a lovely day in Greenwich when we were in London 15 years ago (!!) on our honeymoon, and we were eager to share this beautiful day with Amelia and John reliving a similar experience.

We had visited the Tower the day before, but the views from the river on a clear day (and not in the heavy rain!) were wonderful.

Once we arrived in Greenwich, we enjoyed a nice pub lunch and then trekked up the hill to the Royal Observatory. What a gorgeous day!

My family standing on the Prime Meridian. Scott did an excellent job explaining the science behind the prime meridian to the kids. 

Afterwards we walked back down the hill to enjoy an hour in the Naval Maritime Museum. Scott and I visited this museum on our honeymoon, where Scott really enjoyed the exhibit celebrating Lord Nelson's accomplishments with the British Navy. We wanted to check it out with Amelia and John to share some of Scott's interest in British war history. The photo below is the kids navigating a navy ship using a computer simulation inside the museum.

I enjoyed this display of ship masts - leftover from Navy ships that fought battles from the Royal Navy. 

The Cutty Sark, a 19th century British ship docked on the harbor in Greenwich.

After our lovely day along the river Thames - in London and Greenwich - we enjoyed a nice dinner and rest at our hotel More adventures to come!

London, part 1

Scott and I gave Amelia and John airplane tickets to London this year for Christmas. In the months leading up to the holiday Scott and I had lengthy discussions about Christmas, and we eventually concluded that our kids are getting to the age where experiences are more enjoyable than material objects. We decided that we would give them the gift of a pretty big travel experience and that Europe would be the destination of our family's first significant venture overseas. After reviewing our airline miles-award options, we quickly concluded that establishing home base in London made sense since we wanted to use miles to pay for most of the tickets. Plus, Amelia (and John, to a certain extent) have both been mentioning how cool it would be to see London (I credit a lot of their interest to Harry Potter), so this worked well for us.

I am eager to write about our family's travel experiences because this trip was amazing. I want to document my memories and photos so that I can reflect on them with joy later.

The kids did really well on the long trip to London. Total travel time was about 18 hours from the time we left our house and connected through Atlanta with a long layover until the time we reached the London hotel. They handled the plane rides amazingly well and were cooperative despite jet lag. We arrived in the city around 2:00pm and killed time with snacks and drinks at a pub until we could check into our hotel around 4:00pm. We all refreshed with what felt like the most amazing showers ever and ventured out for a short excursion before dinner around 6:00pm.

Our hotel was located in the Mayfair area, which was super convenient to lots of noteworthy London sights. The weather that evening was lovely (about 65 degrees - a far cry from the intense Texas heat!) so we took a 20 minute walk across Green Park to Buckingham Palace. This was our first sightseeing adventure in London and the kids recognized the building from photos. It felt great to walk around and "wake up" in the cool air and Amelia and John enjoyed the pageantry of people milling about around the Palace.

 

After walking around the palace and park for awhile, we looked for a pub for dinner. We used Trip Advisor recommendations to find many of the restaurants on this trip, and this pub was a good find. It was a little more upscale than your regular pub so the food was better than average. It was Sunday - Father's Day - and we all enjoyed a lovely meal. Scott got Sunday roast (definitely a British thing - he said it reminded him of his mom who makes a fantastic Roast Beef) and I enjoyed the best chicken vegetable pie I ate on this trip. The kids had fish and chips and were happy. We went to bed shortly afterwards to overcome the jet lag.

Monday morning we all woke up mostly refreshed and enjoyed a nice breakfast at our hotel before venturing out in the rain (!!). Luckily this was the only significant rain experience we had while in London, but treading around the Tower of London was not so much fun in the rain. The kids enjoyed their first tube ride over to the tower before we got soaked outside. Luckily we all had umbrellas and rain gear, but still we were really wet once we eventually made our way to the entrance. Once we were inside the rain turned into more of a drizzle and we enjoyed an interesting guided tour from a Beefeater.

From Wikipedia - The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary, popularly known as the Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of London. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners in the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels, but in practice they act as tour guides and are a tourist attraction in their own right, a point the Yeomen Warders acknowledge.

We learned about how executions used to take place within the tower walls (including several notable beheadings on the green space in the photo below), and about the various royalty who have resided in the tower throughout history.

We also spent some time in the crown jewels exhibit and also in the White Tower, where we saw tons of fancy armour used in jousting matches in the 18th and 19th centuries. John's favorite part was the torture exhibit, where we learned how prisoners were tortured while being kept in the prison. Prisoners' bodies were either stretched beyond reason on a torture device or cramped into metal clamps so that their movement was confined, neither of which sound reasonable.

After a pub lunch in the nearby business district, we took another tube ride to the area of the city south of the Thames to visit the Imperial War Museum (IWM). Scott is a huge history buff so visiting the IMW was high on his interest list.

The museum was fascinating. We all enjoyed learning about the British perspective of WWI and WWII, and even the kids were engaged in the exhibits. It helped that there were large planes and tanks in the museum, as well as interactive exhibits that brought the history to life. I have a terrible memory, so I "re-learned" many facts about the wars that weren't fresh in my mind. 

Afterwards, we decided to walk part of the journey back to our hotel and we stumbled upon Big Ben and Parliament. The sun was out by now!

And then we boarded a double-decker bus (kids' request, sitting on the second level of course) and got stuck in crazy traffic headed back to our hotel. We jumped off at Piccadilly Circus (below), where we enjoyed seeing the huge video screens and traffic nightmare before completing the quick walk back to our hotel.

One last picture from the day, taken after dinner on the walk from the restaurant back our hotel. John was fascinated by the number of fancy cars we saw in London. In addition to the Ferraris, Rolls Royces, and McLarens he saw driving on the street, we passed this Bentley dealership (among others) after dinner. John immediately proclaimed, "please take my picture with this awesome car!" And so I did.

More London (and Italy!) adventures to come...