Sooo, like I told you, I went to London for a week!
My personal highlight of the trip was defs the Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour, so that's what my post will be telling yall about :D
Well, we had to take the Underground from Victoria to Euston and from Euston we went by Overground to Watford Junction. We were there at like 2:30 pm and the tour started at 6.. So we spent some time in a restaurant :D At 4 something we too the special Harry Potter bus at Watford Junction and it brought us to the Studios. The entrance looks like this:
When we entered, to the right there are three flat concrete things where Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliff and Rupert Grint pressed their hands in when it was moist :D So there's their hand print and you can compare yours to theirs :D
Well, after that ou enter the main entrance. To the left there's a snack bar and Starbucks where you can also sit down. on the walls around the whole entrance there are big photos of the harry potter characters (eg. harry when he was young, when he was 16 or seventeen, together with ron, ron alone, hermoine when she was little, when she was taller, dumbledore, draco, mad-eye, hagrid, sirius, luna, neville, molly+arthur weasley, the twins, snape,..) and the fort anglia is hanging from the ceiling. To the right theres the gift shop where you can buy many many many harry potter things :D fan stuff and everything.
straight ahead theres the entrance to the tour.
We had to wait like 20 minutes but theres some things to look at while waiting. There are pictures and photos of the Dursleys and a quote of JKRowling. Also, there is the stairs and the cupboard under the stairs where you can have a closer look on Harrys "bedroom" that he had before he got a decent one.
In the beginning of the tour, you and the group you belong to enter a room with black walls and 8 screens on the walls. After the guide told you some information they turn down the lights and on the screens appears a short movie. before and after the movie you can have a look at many many harry Potter wallpapers from all over the world.
After that you enter a cinema, where you can actually have a seat :D There's a big silver screen and you watch a 22minutes movie where rupert, dan and emma give you some info and talk about how life as harry potter was. In the end, on the screen you see the entrance to the great hall like it appears in harry potter 1. The screen is rolled up and the same door, appears behind the screen. Its magical! When the door opens, you enter the great hall.
In the great hall, only two tables are there, the two outmost ones. They are decorated with tables, spoons, knives and forks. Behind the tables you can see the uniforms of hufflepuff, gryffindor, slytherin and ravenclaw and even of some ghosts. In the from where the teachers usually are, the costumes of dumbledore, snape, hagrid, mcgonagall, flitwick, mad-eye, filch and trelawney are displayed.
You go on. There are pictures of the behind-the-scenes-people and directors, etc and some info on them. After that you come to the interior sets hall.
They have the interior sets of the boys dorm-room, the gryffindor common room, dumbledores office, hagrids hut, the weasleys kitchen, umbrides office, the potions room, the room at the malfoy's house, the ministry of magic and many many extras like the entrance to the chamber of secrets, the door of a vault in gringotts, the magic-is-might statue, the big hogwarts pendulum clock, the gate of the malfoy's house. There were also many costumes of Voldemort, the malfoys, bellatrix, umbridge, dumbledore, the weasleys,...
There is also a room (queue is very long) where you can take pictures of yourself and your friends being in the flying car and flying a broomstick :D You can purchase the photos later.
There were also sooo many paintings and they were fabulous!!! It all looked so amazingly realistic!!!
This is mee :D
Potions Classroom with Snapes and SlughornS Clothes.
Weasley Fun Articles :D <3
Next you exit the building and come to a place where they display the knight bus, the dursleys home and the potters home. There are also the chess figures of the first movie, the grave of voldys parents, the fort anglia and a part of the bridge at hogwarts. Also, you can buy butterbeer there.
This Knight Bus is actually able to drive :DD
I liked the Butterbeer but my sister didn't :D
The butterbeer tastes...weird, not like I've expected it. The actual beverage is cold and sparkling and it has the consistency of water but tastes a bit like caramel. There's scum on the beverage, it tastes sweet but also a bit sour...I kinda like it but you have to get used to it...definitely :D
Next you enter the building again, its the animatronics room. Youre not allowed to bring the butterbeer there. They display wax figures like the heads of goblins and nearly-headless nick. Also, you can see masks there, eg the mask of Fenrir Greyback. There's a wax figure of the blown-up aunt marge, dobby, sirius as a dog, lupin as a werewolf, the head of hagrid that is used for stunts, dementors, the head of one of the mermaids, ...Also, you can find complete wax figures of harry, hermoine, fred, dumbledore, katie bell, draco and hagrid.
Theres animatrinics of the mandrake baby, fawkes, baby-fawkes, voldy in harrys between-death-and-life dream, hedwig and the biting book.
Next you see figure (life-sized) of a thestral+baby, the norwegian ridgeback (head), buckbeak, the basilisks head, aragog and parts of the basilisks skeleton.
Next you enter the diagon alley where you can have a look at ollivanders, gringotts, the weasleys shop and many others. But only the facade :(
Next there's a room where you can have a look at the designer's sketches of...everything!!!!
There's also little models of hogwarts, the weasleys house and many other things, made of white stuff that I dont know what it is :D maybe some kind of cardboard..
Next you come to the room where the hogwarts 1:24 model is displayed.
It is amazing how much effort the people spent on this. it looks SOOO realistic and it was actually used for establisting shots of the school. There are also lights built in and when they are turned on you get sometimes get the impression of students passing corridors and its SO nice <3
The last room is the Ollivanders shop from the inside. The walls are actually shelves and they are filled with thousands of boxes. You can't take them out but each and every box is labelled with a name. And if the store was real, I'm sure you'd find unique wands in every single box :D
That was the last room of the tour but when you exit it, you come to the gift shop again...
I'm telling you right away: its getting expensive :D But I didn't care..:D
I bought:
-The tales of beedle the bard
-quidditch through the ages
-a chocolate frog (8pounds but it is HUGE and you get a free card with one of the four founders of hogwarts on it, and some information on the person. I got Rowena Ravenclaw, which is perfect, because I'd be a Rawenclaw if I went to Hogwarts :D)
-Bertie Botts Beans in every flavour (there are indeed a lot of flavours that are unusual, including earwax, vomit, dirt, earthworms and grass :D I'm SO avoiding the vomit one :D but dirt tastes like dirt smells, and so does grass and worms :D a bit creepy :D)
-Ravenclaw gloves
-Postcards of Hermoine brewing the polyjuice potion in yr 2, Dobby flipping to let the cake fly and Luna wearing her Gryffindor-Lion hat :D
-the studio guide with professional pictures of the highlights of the tour and information, because I did not read many of the explanation boards :D
-last but not least: The time turner, which is now the second replica of a harry potter object :D I already have Xenophilius Lovegoods necklace :D The time turner is BEAUTIFUL <3
Yeah, this was one of the greatest days in my life :D I will never forget it and still tell my great grand children what I've seen there :DDD
I really hoped you enjoyed my post, Comment if you like or if you have any questions or if you want more photos :D :D <3
Tascha xoxo
