London, England (part 2)

On the eve of a royal wedding, we decided to take a trip to London to see Harry…

Potter.

Obviously.

Yer a Wizard

Warner Brothers Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter

So, this was admittedly the main reason for our trip to London. Me and Mollie are both HUGE Harry Potter fans and they just so happened to be doing an exhibition on the Goblet of Fire, which is personally my favourite film in the series. Guys, I cannot stress how incredibly MAGICAL this experience was. As this was the location where most of the series was filmed, they still had all of the main sets still made, explanations on how they made the wizarding world a reality, and interactive experiences with all of it along the way. The tour ended on the model of Hogwarts used in the filming of the series and I can honestly say it was one of the coolest things I have seen. With the castle perfectly lit and the musical score from the films, it was truly beautiful. We both cried a little.

Here are about 5 billion pictures.

^ fun fact: the cuppard under the stairs was the smallest set made for the Harry Potter Series.

^ the Great Hall was the biggest

^ special giant effect optical illusions

"Buckbeak was a good hippogriff, always cleaned his feathers."

—Hagrid on Buckbeak

^ truly magical

Kings Cross Station Platform 9 ¾

We of course also went all the way to Kings Cross station to get a picture at Platform 9 ¾ because duh.

Foodie Favourites

Cahoots Bar

Okay, this was just so cool. This pub is themed as an abandoned tube station in the 1920’s and it is absolutely magical (I’m using this word a lot in this post, but London is really that great!). With speakeasy vibes, live jazz music, and amazing cocktails, I wish we could have come back every day.

Beefeater Gin Distillery Tour

London is famous for their gin, so on our last day we decided to learn a little bit more about it (and sample one of their famous G+Ts of course). This was a really cool addition to our trip, as we got a private tour of the distillery and got to meet 2 of the 5 men responsible for making one of the most iconic gins on the planet!

Butterbeer at The Alchemist

You better believe we went in search of an alcoholic Butterbeer concoction, but we actually found this one by accident! This Shining Shimmering Splendid cocktail was the perfect way to end our day of wizarding.

Cereal Killer Cafe

You may remember this on from the first London post… went back because it was so fantastic. I just really like cereal, okay? It was conveniently located very near to our hotel this time, so it’s really a wonder we only came here once this trip!

Sketch

Came for the cool bathrooms (the stalls are like eggs?), stayed for a tea party.

Just London Things

Camden Town

Camden Town was something we missed on the first trip, but since it was so close to Kings Cross Station we decided to check it out! Full of really cool little shops and booths, we could have spent all day here! Definitely something to check out.

London Tower

We started out our last day in London learning and seeing a little bit of the history of the monarchy in England. The tower is home to the crown jewels (read: SPARKLES) and remains a symbol of the power and longevity of the monarchy.

^ Tower Bridge

As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe

Last stop on our trip was a visit to Shakespeare’s very own Globe Theatre.

The original Globe was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, but was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site June 1614 and closed by an Ordinance issued in 1642. The Globe that we went to opened in 1997 and stands a few hundred feet from the site of the original theatre. We saw the play As You Like It, and it was fantastic!

A couple more London Pics

^ update: Big Ben still completely covered

^ Westminster Abbey

^ Buckingham Palace

^ Willington Arch

^ sunken gardens of Kensington Palace

London is constantly full of surprises and new experiences and has quickly become one of my all-time favourite places in the world. I’ll be back soon.

Cheerio, mates!

-B

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