Harry Potter

J's niece Linnea is a huge Harry Potter fan.  She basically grew up with Harry, Hermoine and Ron, standing on line for midnight book releases and dressing up as Harry for Halloween.  This summer she was studying in France and spent a week with us in London before heading home.  Her one request was a trip to Warner Bros. studios in Leavesden where they filmed the Harry Potter movies.  J and I enjoyed reading all the books and watching the movies so we were definitely game but it wasn't until the day before that we realized that C & K were going to be totally bored out of their mind since they didn't know anything about Harry Potter.  J had a lightbulb moment and promptly sat them down in front of the TV to watch the first Harry Potter movie.  They loved it.  C was a bit infatuated with Voldermort and said she wasn't scared at all.  K just wanted to watch the quidditch match over and over again.

The next day we rode out to the studio.

We arrived a bit early so we browsed around the gift shop a bit.  K was particularly fond of all the wands (he came home with Harry's wand) and tried his luck with the sorting hat.

While we waited on line we passed the stairs under which Harry lived @ the Dursley's house.

To start the tour, a large group of us were brought into a theater where Ron, Harry & Hermoine narrated some behind the scenes footage.  Then the screen was lifted and we were at the door to Hogwarts.  Once it opened we were in the great hall.  It was a magical moment.


Around the hall were collections of the clothing and crests from the different houses and up front were mannequins of the teachers.



The sets were in two huge warehouses and there was so much to take in - from large sets like Harry's dorm room, Dumbledore's office and the Ministry of Magic fireplaces to small details like the candy sold at Weasley's shop and the Daily Prophet newspapers.  The attention to every last detail was so impressive.






The Burrow was particularly fun to see with the chopping, cleaning, knitting and ironing being done by magic.


There were a couple interactive activities including Wand Instructions where the kids were taught 5 different moves.  K was really into it!


There was also a green room setup where you could ride in a car and on a broomstick.


A video from C's broom ride across London (starting @ 2:05):

Between the two warehouses was an outdoor area with 4 Privet drive, Potter's Cottage, Hogwarts Bridge and the purple Night Bus.

K spent most of the time running from remote control chess pieces:

Here we grabbed some lunch and washed it down with some Butterbeer (cream soda topped with whipped cream).

The favorite part of the tour for me was the stroll down Diagon Alley.  The team must have had a ton of fun designing and building the shops.  We also met some real quidditch players - K was in heaven.





But the favorite part of the tour for everyone else was the large scale model of Hogwarts.  K made me close my eyes before I could turn the corner to see it.  I'm glad he did because it was such a gasp-inspired moment.

The last room was the inside of Ollivanders wand shop.  Thousands and thousands of boxes from floor to ceiling.  We even managed to spot some of the stars wands:

We spent a good 5 hrs. at the studio and could have probably spent longer.  The experience was way better than we had expected.  I'm so glad Linnea's visit gave us a reason to come.