Our whole day was pretty much devoted to this one event: the Harry Potter tour. We had gotten tickets for 10am thinking that early on a Friday it wouldn't be too busy, but we were wrong. Although, I'm guessing that place is always busy. To get there we had to take a train to the outskirts of London and then get on a special Harry Potter bus which took us to the studio. Both of us were so tired that it wasn't until we got off the bus outside the studio that we both got so excited and couldn't stop smiling! Right inside the building they already have some items up like the flying car and pictures of the cast, and of course you can go into the gift shop. Kaleen and I got in line with out tickets and waited to be let in. It was probably about a 15 minute wait, but next to the line about half way they had the set for Harry's cupboard under the stairs. The detail was amazing! Once we got to the front of the line they shuffled us into this small room were we stood and listened a bit to the rules of the tour and about the making of the films. We then went into a theatre where they recapped all the movies. Kaleen and I sat in the middle in the back and they asked each half of the room to cheer and then the two people in the middle at the back and we definitely cheered the loudest to the point that the person talking commented on it. As we watched the movie recap I got shivers down my spine in anticipation and once it was over the raised the screen to reveal the entrance to the Great Hall. It was so spectacular! We were in the whole thing for about 4 hours and we still agreed we could have been in there more. Now I won't go into detail about everything we saw and how we got excited over every little detail, so I'll give you some highlights. The Great Hall was definitely the first highlight! It was very large and imposing! It did have the feel of an Oxford college hall, which is what it was based off of. The next highlight would have been the green screens room. Kaleen and I pretended to be in the flying car and we went all out! After the guy who was doing it said he hadn't seen people so into it in a long time and he couldn't wait to see us on the brooms. The brooms were fun too, but I definitely enjoyed the car more. They took video and photos of us doing both, but even though it would have been awesome to have it was a little expensive for us, so you'll just have to use your imagination! I liked seeing all the sets, or parts of sets that they had. It was interesting to see how much they made versus how much was cgi. The following thing I'll mention is the Hogwarts Express. They had just gotten the real train in and it was so red and big! Then we had butterbeer which we both agreed tasted like a butterscotch float. It was pretty tasty! The final big thing to mention would be the Hogwarts model at the end that they made in order to do zoom shots and flybys. It was so detailed and actually quite large. A lot of skill and time must have gone into it. There was much more in the tour such as learning about how they burnt the Burrow down along with some of the props inside. There was just so much! On thing we did do is that there were these paper books they were calling passports where you found stamps as you went around and we definitely did that and got really into it! At the end they, of course, make you exit through the gift shop. I had set myself a limit of how much I could get and I stuck to it. I won't say how much or what we got. You'll just think we're silly and make fun of us!
After we headed back to London and dropped our stuff off before heading out once again, but this time to the West End of London to see a musical. That night we saw Phantom of the Opera. I chose it because I have never seen it live. Kaleen has, but she still enjoyed it. I've never seen a show, at least to my knowledge, on a stage that has been specifically made or changed for that show. Some pretty impressive things happened. I throughly enjoyed the performance! It was an experience I'm glad to have had!
The following day, Saturday, April 11th, we went to Hatfield House which was the residence of the children of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth I, and King Edward VI. When we got there it was raining to our disappointment because the house had an extensive garden/field that we wanted to see parts of, so we were going to be outside a fair amount. Luckily it cleared up after about 30 minutes. We were left a bit damp, but it wasn't too bad. Only one wing of King Henry's house still remains and we of course got the extra ticket to go inside. It was a tour and the lady pretty much told us everything that we already knew. I guess that happens more when you study and know about the history of the places you're going and the people who lived there. The new house built on the cite was pretty extensive. It was good that they made you follow a certain path or for sure I would have gotten lost in all of it. After exploring the house we went on the walking trails because they had marked out the spot where Queen Elizabeth I had supposedly learned she was queen after her sister died. In that spot there is now a tree planted by Queen Elizabeth II. There were lots of oak trees in this area. I guess it's where a lot of it comes from for oak furniture and floors.
After Hatfield House we still had time to kill before our evening activity. I've been wanting to go to Greenwich to go stand on the Meridian Line, so we headed there. We got off the train in Greenwich and got to the park where the line is situated. It was on top of this hill which didn't look to bad of a climb until we started up it and suddenly it got very steep! Once we wheezed our way to the top of the hill we went to check out the Meridian Line. We realized that it cost 9 pounds, about 18 Canadian dollars to get inside, so we said no to that! Instead right outside of the main line on the hill there was just a vertical line on a wall which we called "the Poor man's meridian line", so we went and stood in front of that. On top of the hill there was also a statue for General Wolfe, the general who led the battle of Quebec City which secured the English predominance over Canada. It was a bit of a out of place statue. On it there were three words: "Victor of Quebec". It's nice that all of Canadian history can be summed up so nicely!
That evening we went to another musical, this time it was "Beautiful: The Carol King Musical". It was based on the life of Carol King. It was quite different from Phantom of the Opera of course, but I enjoyed it just as much. The singing was really good and the songs they had chosen I think worked really well with the story.
The next day we were back to Oxford after one more place to visit in the London area.
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