HARRY POTTER TOUR, LONDON

Harry Potter Tour

Hello everyone, one day later! In today's entry I am going to talk about an incredible experience if you are a big fan of the Harry Potter series, that I experienced with my friend Kate when we were in London: The Harry Potter Tour in the Warner Bros Studio. So let's begin.

I've been a fan of Harry Potter ever since I was little. I've seen the films a thousand times and read all the books. I even read the first one in just a day :O. I went to London in Summer 2015 and I had really wanted to visit the Harry Potter Tour, which is located in the outskirts of this huge city. The Warner Bros Studios have always seemed to be somewhere really cool to me, and I died of envy every time that I saw pictures from someone who had visited it. As I knew that I was going to have time to visit the majority of tourist attractions in London, I decided to spend half a day seeing this tour.

How do you get to the Harry Potter studios?

Kate and I knew that it was in the suburbs of the city, so I think we had to get a bus at 10 am in the morning. We got it from in front of Waterloo station, but not in the main entrance, the other one. The truth is that London is a maze of streets, especially in the centre and as I wasn't used to it... I got lost a couple of times. Also, I didn't have internet or anything like that to guide me but well, at least in the centre of London, there are maps everywhere so that you can find where you are. So we took the bus and it was an hour and a half journey. On the journey, we watched a film to entertain us, until we finally arrived there. I noted that it was really in the far outskirts of London, because the roads were motorways, there weren't any houses and where they shot the making of Harry Potter was simply more studios and vacant areas.

What did you find inside of Making of Harry Potter?

We arrived and there was a really long queue to buy tickets (coming from the fact that in London you have to queue for everything) but we had already bought our tickets on the internet in anticipation of this, so we were able to enter the Making of. I am pretty sure the entry cost £30. As everything, this depends on how long in advance you buy, the queues etc., but £30 is the minimum price if I remember rightly. We went inside the building and everything was decorated with posters and images from the series, the characters, the magical locations... everywhere. Despite the fact that we already had our tickets, there was a kind of second entrance where we were waiting for like half an hour to enter. As you already know, go with time to spare and if possible, try to go with the ticket already in your bags so that you don't spend half your life waiting around. Finally, we got in. They brought us to a room full of big screens and the guide started to give us a really interesting talk on Harry Potter in general, the studios, why and when they were made and also talked about what we would see inside the studios. We kept walking and sat down in a room full of seats and in front, there was a cinema screen. The screen turned on and projected a short film in which Emma, Daniel and Rupert (the actors who played the principal characters in the series) said what Harry Potter and the studies mean to them. They said that within these studios they have memories from their whole childhood, the costumes, the walls, the objects to play Quidditch with. Basically, all the stuff that they'd used whilst filming the 8 films which make up the Harry Potter series. Between one thing and another, finally, we could enter the tour.

The first thing that we saw was the makeup of the Great Hall, the tables, the stands at which Dumbledore made his speeches, almost everything was there. All the models, the magical creatures, the gowns that they wore for the balls, their robes, Dumbledore's beard, the magic wands, the Horrocruxes... Everything. Room after room we saw the whole montage of the films, from small to big objects, the Basilisk, the Mirror of the Erised, etc. In one room, you could even mount a broom in a simulation to look like you are flying and playing Quidditch; they take your photo and give it to you at the end of the tour. This might seem dumb to you, but it was super realistic because behind the broom, they had a green screen which they used to shoot in the film to create the background behind. Then, bit by bit we were seeing more and more things until we were almost at the end, where the famous train that takes you to Hogwarts is located. You can go on the train and feel like you are inside the film, hahaha, they let you sit down and take as many pictures as you want. There was also the trolley that I talked to you about in my last blog post. It's the same one that you can find at Kings Cross train station. People take the same photo there, but there's a difference, on the tour it costs no more or less than £12 for it. £12 for a photo, ay. Sometimes these companies profit from and take advantage of the die-hard fans, don't you think? D:

We continued and went to the outside bit, where there were bigger objects like the night bus or the house where Harry's aunt and uncle live in Privet Drive. This was my favourite part and the bit that amazed me the most. Also, in the outside part there was a cafe, and well Kate and I could not resist buying a Butterbeer. It's flavour, I don't know, I don't like beer but this was quite good. It had a bittersweet taste, but a cool aftertaste. You'll have to try it to understand. If you have the opportunity one day, then you'll know.

We finished the tour after an hour and a half, or maybe a bit more. We took it slow, we had seen everything with sufficient time because we knew that this is an experience you are only going to live once (or twice? ) in your life. Saying that Kate went to another Making of Harry Potter in the United States and she said it was a lot better than the London one, with a lot more fun attractions and everything looked a lot more real, as if you were really inside this magical world. This sounds very weird, but well, the true fans will understand that HAHAHA. And well, she felt a little deceived because she had been to the other one, but I was living in ignorant bliss, so I loved it and had a great time. I am not going to forget it.

After our visit to the Warner Bros Tour, we went back by bus, with the return journey also taking more or less an hour and a half. When we both got back, it was already quite late and we were really tired from doing all the stuff above, so we went back home.

Here, I'll leave you some photos so you can have an idea of what the inside of the studios are like. What type of objects there are, what you will find, what won't be there, so you can see what Butterbeer looks like, etc.

The last photo is of the castle because I thought it was a pretty model, although unfortunately the picture doesn't portray how great it was. Hogwarts was very impressive, believe me.

And this is all for today's entry! I hope you have enjoyed and you now know to visit if you are true fans because you are going to love and be amazed by it. Thank you to those who read my entries day after day. Your support makes me happy. Hugs and kisses.

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