Tea Time Travels

This past year my husband and I read all of the Harry Potter books, and after each one we watched the movie. So when we decided to move to London, I couldn’t help but be excited to stroll down the same alleyways that J.K. Rowling got her inspiration from.

When our friends who also love the wizarding world came to visit us, we decided to have a magical day filled with Harry Potter activities.

We started the day doing the Harry Potter walking tour. We started by being sorted into our houses (5 points to Hufflepuff!), and began walking through the city. We got to see popular landmarks in the city, saw inspiration for Hogwarts buildings, and learned where actual scenes were shot. Who knew that the Leaky Cauldron is actually a taco restaurant now?!

We also got to stroll down quaint alleyways that J.K. Rowling walked through to and from work and inspired places like Diagon Alley. The tour was sprinkled with lots of trivia and fun facts about the movies and actors. We even got to take a boat through the Thames as we were navigating the city during the tour.

After a quick stop at home, we made our way an hour north of the city to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour. Anyone who is a Harry Potter fan will feel like a kid on Christmas morning walking through the studio tour.

We got to walk through the doors into the great hall, just as if it was our first day at Hogwarts.

It was even more magical because the studio was decorated for Christmas, and many of the scenes were decorated like Hogwarts was during the holiday season.

We got to walk through the house common rooms, Dumbledore’s office, potions class, all while seeing original costumes, wigs, and set pieces.

We nervously proceeded to the forbidden forest (I may have screamed when I saw the spiders), then hurried to the spectacular Hogwart’s Express. We got to walk through the train and felt like we were waiting for the sweets trolley to come by.

We learned about the film making techniques to make creatures realistic, using both physical props and animation techniques.

It was so interesting to learn about the creative processes that were involved, and see firsthand how much work was put into these movies.

We even got to learn about the pets of Hogwart’s… There were about 9 different dogs who played Fang throughout the different movies, almost all of which were rescue dogs.

I tried my first butterbeer and my husband got butterbeer flavored ice cream. This location is 1 of 5 in the world that sells authentic butter beer. And it was delicious.

Each stop on the tour was more and more impressive than the last, and it ended with a huge model of Hogwarts that they used to shoot all the aerial scenes.

The studio tour was truly a magical experience, and I felt ready to get on my broomstick to head back home.