There are almost 1200 pictures of our trip, so at the end of each blog entry, don't pass-up clicking on the album link highlighted to see all of the pictures from that entry!
August 1st, our fabulous trip to the UK touring England, Scotland and Wales begins flying from Los Angeles to London's Heathrow to be picked up by our Cousins Ray and Sandra Grigg. We had a nice flight on Virgin Atlantic Airlines with our Passports and English Pounds in tow!
With the length of the flight, we encountered a time change making our arrival at 11:45 AM on Friday the 2nd. Ray and Sandra were there to pick us up and the adventure begins. Their Vauxhall Infinity drove us about 1375 miles until arriving at their home in Yeoford, Devon. This comfortable car averaged about 44 miles per gallon on our trip ... no hybrid but straight diesel gasoline. Kudos to Ray for all of the driving!
We drove to Watford about 20 miles north of London to stay at The White House Hotel. Ray and Sandra thought it would be good to start the trip on a reflection of the States to make us feel at home, so they chose The White House for us to stay. What more related to the US than the White House! It was simply fabulous!
It was so great to be in England once again after our visit in 2010. One of the things we so looked forward to was the tradition English Tea. So what a way to start out this 20 day adventure ... yes, English Tea!
After a good night's rest, we went to the London Warner Brothers Studios to tour The Making Of Harry Potter studio and sound stages. This is the studio where all eight movies were filmed. It is a tribute to enormous cast of backup workers that made the magic happen with special effects, stage building, design, props, and all the other artistry that makes a film spectacular. These are the original sets of the movies that we walk through with the original items seen in the movies. There are only two sound stages, J and K ... you got it, for JK Rowling! There are a ton of pictures, so be sure to go to the album when you finish this section.
Let the fun begin!
The Weasley's Ford Anglia car where Harry Potter hung on for dear life after it was almost crushed by the Hogwarts Express hangs in the lobby
The Dursley's house Cupboard Under the Stairs - Harry's bedroom at Uncle's
Inside The Great Hall
Gryffindor Boy's Dormitory
The wands of Hogwarts School - Ron's, Harry's, Hermione's
At the Golden Phoenix
Dumbledore's Office
Potions Classroom
Hagrid's Hut
The room of the Kitten Plates
The Dursleys, Harry Potters relatives, lived in this quiet suburban home at #4 Privet Drive
Harry's childhood home prior to the murder by Voldemort of Harry's parents, named Potter's Cottage in Godric's Hollow
Mary Anne walks the crooked bridge of the Harry Potter novels
Buckbeak
Diagon Alley
The Hogwarts Model ... used of all of the films wide shots
After finishing looking at all of the fabulous exhibits of The Harry Potter Experience, our next stop was to drive to Cambridge. Ray had aptly names this leg of our trip "The Royal Tour". We laughed in appreciation as we were first stopping in Cambridge (The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, The Queen's grandson and future King of England), next to York (The Duke of York, Prince Andrew, the Queen's son), next to Edinburgh (The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, The Queen's consort), and then to Balmoral, the Queen's summer holiday castle in Scotland where she was in residence for August. Pretty clever, eh?
The Earl of Derby was our great pub booked for our room in Cambridge
We walked around Cambridge seeing the University and many other sights for a glorious day.
Harry Potter Experience was so full of things to see as well as Cambridge, the photo album at this link will have lots more captioned pictures to enjoy, 174 in total.
0 comments:
Post a Comment