The Making of Harry Potter

(7/3/24 – Trying to catch up on writing about our trip!)

On our last full day in London (June 28), we had a full agenda. First stop of the day before heading on our magical adventure – Borough Market! This market is in central London, and it’s been around for years – you can find people selling fresh food such as fruits, vegetables, meat and fish, and even spices and oils. You’ll also find plenty of booths where you can buy a quick meal. We enjoyed wandering around this place, it was very busy! I ended up buying a Japanese rice bowl that was super delicious. Minced pork cooked in soy and garlic, with sushi rice and some pickled garlic and ginger, carrots, and green onions. I’d happily eat another, but the generous portion filled me up quick! Kiley got tacos that ended up just being alright, but she also bought two orders of chicken gyoza from another booth because they were so good! We also got freshly made lemonade. Yum!

After leaving the market, we headed to King’s Cross to catch our bus to Watford for the Harry Potter Studio Tour. We arrived to King’s Cross a bit early so we decided to wander around the area a bit. We stumbled across the British Library. This building was massive and they had some cool stuff we could look at! This library had a restaurant, a gift shop, a small museum, and a bunch of old books on display. Very cool library. If I lived in London, I’d definitely be a member 😜

Before long, it was time to catch our bus. This ended up being a pretty long journey in London traffic. It took us nearly a hour to get to our destination. The ride was worth it!! We ended up spending about 4 and half hours at the studio tour. They had actually expanded since my last visit in 2015, and added a whole lot more stuff to look at and do. The highlights were really just being able to see the original costuming, props, and some of the original sets they used. It was neat to learn about the filming techniques they used for some scenes in the movies, and I learned that they actually used a ton of forced perspective in the movies to make things seem bigger or smaller than they actually were. The giant castle model at the end of the tour was what they used for exterior shots of Hogwarts in the movie. Kind of blew my mind. We were able to walk through the Great Hall, onto the Hogwarts Express train, and through the Forbidden Forest. Very cool! Lots of photos below.

And the amazing Hogwarts Castle…

When we finished the tour, it was time to get on another long bus ride back to central London, then a short bus ride back to our airbnb. We had leftovers for dinner and watched more Outlander… finished the first season!

In the morning, we’re headed to France! More later…