Harry Potter Studio Tour!

On the third day of my London trip I took a trip out to see the Harry Potter Studio Tour!

Here's some quick info about the tour:

Tickets: Gotta book 'em way in advance! This tour would have been impossible to get on if I wasn't there on a Monday, it's always completely booked during the weekend, especially during the summer (and especially during the London Olympic summer).

Prices: £28.00, or roughly $44 (wow, I hadn't done that conversion until just now. stupid pound...)

Fun: Unlimited (included in price)

Getting There: It is not exactly in the city, but can easily be gotten do via 1 train, and a 2 pound  roundtrip busride. More info can be found on the website.

Time: Expect to spend at least 2 hours in the tour, I spent closer to 3

Pro Tip: Buy the audio guide, it's worth it. It is more of an Audio-Visual guide-- it is an iPod touch with interviews and commentary that you can't get without it (and it's only 5 pounds)

Website

And now onto the important part...the pictures:

A little teaser while you wait in line to enter the tour: the room under the stairs!

You start off the tour by watching this cool little intro movie with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. When it's over, Daniel says something like "And let the tour begin..." and the screen lifts to reveal the entrance to the Great Hall! Great way to begin the tour.

The Geat Hall!

Dumbledore just givin' a speech.

The giant ice sculpture from the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire

Ron's dress robes for the Yule Ball

All of the Educational Decrees were hanging on the walls near the entrance to the studio

Harry and Ron's dormitory

The clock was AWESOME! It was so huge

Gryffindor Common Room. I think this is one of the colest examples of how they kept almost everything in tact even after the films were all complete. Those are the real clothes the actors wore around.

Sirius' Azkaban Prison Number. They had basically everything you can imagine, down to the tiniest detail on this tour; the original golden snitch, time turner, crystal goblet , etc.  I have those pictures but didn't want to crowd this post

Dumbledore's office

Hagrid's cabin. You can't actually tell, but everything in the cabin is not the normal size as they are in the real world. They did this to enhance to illusion of Hagrid being a half-giant in the first few movies. For scenes where this isn't possible, they actually used an animatronic version of Hagrid, with a ridiculously realistic looking face.

Hassssss aaa ssiieeetthhhhh....

Green screen action!

The Burrow. This was actually quite amazing; if you remember from the movies, the Burrow had a lot of magically moving household items - a knife that was magically cutting up carrots, pots and pans that were scrubbing themselves, etc. I always just assumed that these were CGI. But, to my surprise, they were actually really cleverly made mechanical devices; so when I was at the tour, I watched the pots and pans cleaning themselves! So cool.

This was truly a well done piece of art. The detail on the Muggles holding up the "Magic is Might" obelisk-like thing is really great.

There are only 2 floo-network portals. That was quite depressing. The rest were movie magic.

The Triple Decker!

Hagrid's Bike and sidecar

Privet Drive! Of the few houses they have, most are just facades with nothing but a front. But apparently Number 4 is done in complete working detail, even with little pictures of Dudley hanging up inside.

Aaaaaaand here's where my camera died :( Let me just say this for any Americans who ever do the same sort of trips that I did: THE UK DOES NOT USE THE SAME TYPE OF ELECTRICAL SOCKET AS THE REST OF EUROPE. This means that if you are in London for 4 days, your camera will most likely die if you don't buy an adapter while you are there. This had to be the most disappointing thing of the entire trip. Up ahead were some really amazing things: concept art, the Props shop, the creatures shop (including a damn dragon), and then the coolest thing of all...:

This HUGE f**king model of Hogwarts. Now, tell me this isn't amazing. You know all those shots of Harry flying around the castle, or the group walking down a huge staircase to Hagrids cabin, or just any of the beautiful panoramas you see in the first 6 films? Well, if you were like me, you figured it was CGI. Nope. It was a small camera coursing through this 50 ft. diameter, 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts! That is crazy! When I was there I was completely amazed by the amount of detail that went into it. Read the page on the website for a little more detail. I just couldn't believe that the scene in Goblet of Fire when Harry is being chased on his broom by the dragon was shot like this (with Harry green-screened in of course). Apparently it wasn't economical or technologically feasible enough to render the castle grounds until the final 2 movies. Everything else was done using this model. Simply an amazing end to the tour.


I really hope you enjoy the pictures (I have more if anyone really wants to see them). I think that if you go to London, and you are a Harry Potter fan, there is no excuse not to go see this. It was one of the best uses of 3 hours I could imagine having grown up with the books and the films, and if you are a reader or even just a movie-watcher, you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Now, I just need to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and my HP life experience will be complete...

Paris, Paris

A panoramic shot I took from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

I've been thinking about the posts I've been doing, and realized that for these "I went ___" posts, anyone who reads this probably just wants one thing: pictures! So I'll try to keep this post mostly about what I saw and did in my weekend in Paris! I joined Morgen and her family on Friday evening and stayed until Sunday evening. It was a short trip but I saw a lot:

Paris definitely has a theme to it's architecture. The city looks very uniform, but with enough slight variation to be beautiful. The stone buildings and wrought-iron balconies are typical of the entire city.

This piano player kicked a lot of ass.

The metro system in Paris is great, and very similar to London's. It is one of (if not the?) densest subway systems in Europe. Given how ridiculously dangerous it looks to drive in Paris, it's a good thing they have the subway. Morgen's dad (Mark) actually said he was afraid while driving around, something he said he has never felt before while driving. Paris also includes the most dangerous area to drive in Europe, the roundabout around the Arc de Triomphe.

This was maybe the coolest thing I saw. There were several cars like this. They weren't common, but I loved how casual it was that there were just cars parked on the street, chargin' up!

Luxury.

YELLOW BATMOBILE

There is a pretty cool tradition in Paris that our tour guide told us about. I don't remember exactly, but the gist is this: You come here with a padlock (not a combination lock), and your lover. You write your names on the lock and lock it to the bridge. Then, as a symbol of the everlastingness of your love, you throw both of your keys into the river below! We found this out AFTER we wrote all of Morgen's families name on a lock with "Greetings From the USA!" on it. We kinda missed the whole point.

It seems cool, and it is..But we later found out that all of these locks are clipped off the bridge about once a week. Kind of ironic considering the theme of everlasting love -_-

Now, I don't have a lot to say about them, but just as proof that I went, here are the big landmarks!

Notre Dame

Arc de Triomphe (it is worth every penny to go on top of this. It is the best view in the whole city)

MY GIRL MONA

Some giant metal thing we found, I forget the name.

To the Louvre!

I didn't have my camera with me, but on Saturday we saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Stadte de France. It was a great show, they played all of the classics, and only the best songs from their new album. The one funny thing I noticed was that, even though the French loved RHCP, France isn't well known for being English-friendly. So Morgen and I were basically the only ones singing the entire time, until the chorus of a really popular song came on, and all of a sudden the crowd goes wild! It's strange because I don't have a good feel for what it would be like for the biggest bands in the world to sing in a different language.



So, I had a great time in Paris and it is definitely on the must-go-to list of European cities. I'll close with my favorite picture from the whole trip: A few of the Grand Palace in the distance as a river boat goes down the beautiful Seine River:

I love the way the French flag sticks out against the dusk!

London's Calling

So, a few weeks ago, on a Wednesday, I got the surprise news that I would have the following Monday and Tuesday off from work. There was going to be an audit on my lab and they didn't want any interns screwing anything up. Slightly insulting, but I'll take it! I immediately jumped on Kayak.com and looked for a cheap flight to somewhere far away. The problem is that this is my only chance at a 4 day weekend for my whole trip, so I wanted to hit somewhere big...

And thank God, there were round trip tickets to London for less than $190 from Saturday morning to Tuesday evening...London here I come!

The first thing I did was meet up with Danielle, a good friend from the States, at the 360 Theater in Kensington Park for a stage version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe! The 360 Theater was rather unique... Actors could enter from any direction down the stairs that the audience came in on. In addition, the outer ring of the stage actually rotates! It let them do some cool things like run in place and give the impression of travelling.

After the show we walked around London for the rest of the day. Before I get to the landmarks, here are some stereotypically British things!

Guards!

Awesome Cabs!

Telephone Booths!

Ridiculous Pub Names!

Fish and Chips!

Now on to some of the nicer sights we saw while walking around:

Buckingham Palace! I'll be completely honest, this had to be the most disappointing sight we saw. I really hadn't ever looked at a picture of the Palace, so when we got there I didn't even know what it was. For some reason I pictured something a bit more... extravagant. Nonetheless it beats the hell out of my 14 sq.m. room back in Freising, so I'm glad I saw it!

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Now this is a sight! Looking out over the beautiful Thames at this beautiful architecture was amazing. This was really beautiful. These structures are really impressive; standing where we were, I think I could have hung around all day.

Just a little guy in the shadow of the big guy

The London Eye. This impressive giant Ferris wheel provides one of the better views of the city that you can get. Mind you, I seem to remember each seat costing about 30 pounds (~$47). Not worth it in my opinion, but to each his own.

And finally, Westminster Abbey! Once again a really impressive structure to behold, but we didn't get a chance to go inside or spend too much time around the area.

Saturday and Sunday were almost completely dedicated to walking around and seeing some sights. Monday I spent almost the whole day getting out to the Harry Potter Studio Tour (which deserves it's own post), and after that my camera died :(  Since I can't provide many more pictures of London, instead I'll provide a few tips:

Getting There
      Look for flights using EasyJet. It's a discount airline company but flies out of major airports, unlike RyanAir. They also aren't strict about their carry-on policy at all. I'm not sure but I believe EasyJet is hubbed in England. There are 3 airports in London providing many opportunities to fly in, but the two cheaper ones are Sanstead and Gatwick. I flew into Gatwick, but both of them will require you to take a train into London proper. I used the 'Gatwick Express', it cost 19 pounds but I was into Victoria Station in 30 minutes.
      Every day while there I bought a daily Underground pass for something like 7.70 pounds, it let me get around the whole city all day, and it was really cost effective considering the amount I used the trains.

Lodging
      There are plenty of hostels around London. but be mindful that it is a really big city. They also run a lot more expensive than hostels in other European cities that I've been to, but just chalk that up to London being London, and look for a nice place to enjoy your stay.
       The first place I stayed was "Palmers Lodge - Hillspring at Willesden Green." I would highly recommend it, they have their own bar, it's in a nice part of town, computer access, and the security is great (need a card to get into a front gate, to get into the front door, to get into the door on your floor, to get into your room, and then a card to open your large personal valuables locker). For the 3rd night, I stayed in Camden Town, much closer to the city, but not as nice; more expensive, more people per room, and situated above a (dead) bar that I couldn't even get into because of a "comedy night", and no computer access.


Museums
      My last day in London I saw something like 4 or 5 different Museums. The greatest part is that they are all free and most are close to each other. Personally I visited the British Museum, the Science Museum (this is really geared more towards children), the Victoria and Albert Museum, and, my favorite, the Natural History Museum. You can easily spend just an hour or two at all of these places without spending a cent! Here is list of some more of the popular museums. This is a great way to spend a day in London!

Pubs
      Maybe this is a bit telling of my interests, but the pubs were one of the things I was looking forward to most. I like their style of chilled out drinking, and of course the Ales that you can't get elsewhere in Europe. As much as I like German beer, I really missed that bitter ale taste. The difference between the Pub drinking style and the rest of Europe is that clubs/discos are the most popular mode of drinking for most other countries (for young people, at least). I'm not a big club guy, and I think pubs are a much better place to talk, enjoy your drink, and meet people. I met someone new every pub I went to, and even made a Danish friend at one who I keep in contact with a little bit. The only trouble with pubs is that, because they are open during the day, they have to close at 11 or 12 at night due to some odd English alcohol selling laws, so if you want to have a whole night of drinking, you will eventually have to move to a club. Either way, I recommend going to the famous SoHo neighborhood for both kinds of drinking establishments.

I had a great time in London and I think it is a top 3 must-visit city in Europe. One of the best parts for us Americans...they all speak English (or something like it), and so it's really tourist friendly for us.


Well, that's it for London. I'm really glad I got lucky and had 2 extra days off of work. Next post will be about the amazing Harry Potter Studio Tour that I did while there!