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Published: September 2nd 2014
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In the afternoon of August 1st, we left Betws-y-Coed and headed back to London. This time, we stayed with some of Max's cousins (he hadn't seen one of them in more than 10 years, since before she got married). We got to their house in time for Shabbat dinner, and it was really nice to celebrate Shabbat for the first time in a while. We also met some friends of theirs, who happen to be from LA! So we enjoyed playing Jewish geography and figuring out who we might know in common. There are three kids in the family (ages 2, 6, and 9), and Rebecca especially enjoyed talking to them. But soon, it was time to go to sleep.
On Saturday, we spent the morning hanging out with Max's family and then went over to have lunch with some of their local friends. We needed to leave early though because we'd managed to get tickets for the Making of Harry Potter exhibit. Note for anyone who may be traveling and planning to do activities you need to book in advance: pick a day far in advance and book it, or you may end up failing to get tickets for
Great Hall
Max in the Hogwarts Great Hall. the date you want. We'd initially wanted to go to the Harry Potter exhibit when we were first in London, but when we looked into getting tickets two days before, we discovered that the first tickets available we for about three weeks from then. So we decided to go back after going to Ireland. But then, we once again didn't book early enough (not thinking), and when we checked about two weeks before, we discovered that tickets were only available for dates after we were planning on leaving London for Paris (and not going back until November). We figured that we would keep checking back and hope that something became available or just go in November if necessary. Thankfully, dates did open up less than a week before, and we decided to go on Saturday, the 2nd. And the exhibit was amazing and totally worth it (and yes, Max does agree with Rebecca on this). We started off in the Great Hall, which is much smaller than you would think. Throughout the exhibit, we saw tons of props, including costumes, wands, books, cauldrons, brooms, papers, statues, portraits, and Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes supplies. In the first soundstage we saw multiple sets,
Great Hall 2
Rebecca in the Hogwarts Great Hall. including the Hogwarts gates, Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore's office, the potions classroom, and parts of the Ministry of Magic. Then, in the backlot outside between the two soundstages we saw the Knight Bus, the Hogwarts bridge, Privet Drive, the Potter family house in Godric's Hollow, the giant wizard's chess pieces, the motorcycle, and the Ford Anglia. We also got butterbeer, which was weird but good. Then, it was off to the second soundstage. In this one, we saw a lot of the wigs and animatronics used in the movies. We learned that in scenes where Hagrid needed to look REALLY tall, they used a body double with an animatronic head of Robbie Coltrane on top of his head. We met Buckbeak, Dobby, Fawkes, the werewolf version of Lupin, a thestral, Norbert, Aragog, and a dragon's head. Then came Diagon Alley. At first, we just saw Gringotts, but after turning the corner, the whole street came into view. This was the first time Rebecca's jaw dropped. All of the shops were there, even some of those only used in the books (like Madam Malkin's robe shop, the Apothecary, and Florian Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. We couldn't go inside any of them,
Great Hall 3
Hogwarts professors in the Great Hall. but the outsides were amazing all the same. Then it was on to hallways with drawings, picture, blueprints, and models used for the movies. But the final room was the most spectacular part of the exhibit: it contained a full model of Hogwarts to scale, which took up the whole room. Every little detail is included, and it was used for scenes when panning out over Hogwarts or in scenes where Hogwarts is in the background, and actors were filmed on greenscreen. It was a great way to end the exhibit. When we made it to the train station to return to London, the train ended up being about half an hour late, apparently because of some disruptive passengers (it was a Saturday night). But when we finally made it to London, we decided to go to King's Cross station, which was only about a 10 minute walk from the other station, to visit Platform 9 3/4. Near Platform 9 in King's Cross is a setup of a luggage cart filled with a wizard's trunk and an owl cage slamming into -- or vanishing through -- the wall on its way to Platform 9 3/4. Two staff members from the
Yule Ball
Rebecca in front of the ice bar during the Yule Ball. Harry Potter store a few feet away help stage and take photos you: one holds a Hogwarts scarf behind you as if you were running full speed and the other one takes the photo (the first person is strategically located outside of the shot). We decided that it was too late to wait in the long line for the official photos, so we just tried to take pictures of the setup from outside the line. Then we left and headed back to Max's cousins' place to go sleep.
We needed to get up early on Sunday for a tour of England in One day - Stratford, Bath, Stonehenge, and the Cotswolds. The bus drove through London on its way out, and our guide told us about the places we were driving past. We then headed to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Shakespeare's childhood home. It's a beautiful place, and although there have been changes since Shakespeare was born, the original buildings still stand. There's also a small museum and artifacts relating (or potentially relating) to Shakespeare. We enjoyed walking through the buildings and garden, but then it was time to get back on the bus and head to Bath. Although the
Costumes
An array of costumes. name does come from the Roman Baths in the city, we did not visit them since that would have been an additional cost. Instead, we went on a free (well, included) walking tour with our guide. He showed us the abbey, Queen's Square, one of the places Jane Austen lived, the area called The Circus (built by John Wood and his son), the area called the Crescent (built by John Wood Jr.), and Royal Victoria Park. We then got a quick lunch and made it back to the bus just as it was starting to rain. Then it was on to Stonehenge. The stones were pretty cool, and it's definitely an interesting place to visit. The mystery makes it even more interesting: no one knows how the stones were brought there or what their original purpose was, although there are various theories. There's also a museum with artifacts from and information about the period in which Stonehenge was built (over a few thousand years). We enjoyed walking around the exhibit until it was time to get back on the bus and go back to London. In London, we ate dinner before getting on another bus: this time, we were going
Costumes 2
More costumes and Ministry decrees to Paris overnight. Thankfully, this overnight journey was much less eventful than the previous one, and we were able to stay on the bus since it went on a train instead of a ferry across the Chunnel. Although we didn't get much sleep, we had a place to stay, and we were able to take a short nap before exploring the city.
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Melinda
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Hogwarts
Loved reading this post again!! Such great pictures, too!! You two are really taking it ALL in :)