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!