Day 3 - Harry Potter and Imperial War

We left a drizzly Warwick this morning to head back towards London to Warner Brothers Studios - where they filmed all 8 Harry Potter movies. We made a grand entrance to the empty parking lot - not realizing when the sign pointed right it meant we were supposed to drive left around the roundabout. Oops. The nice parking attendant made sure to point out the mistake. We were the first tour of the morning - admittance is by reservation only. Reviews call the studios the highlight of a trip, yet we had a particular 12 year old who was bored immediately - really not sure why, but she carried the bored theme for the entire day (probably jet lag?).  Although I wouldn't go as far as saying a studio of really cool leftover sets is the highlight of a trip to London, the rest of us liked our tour.  Jeremy thought the green screen "fly a car/ broom stick" was gay but the creature/animatronics department was exceptionally cool (did you know Hagrid's head was often a fake/animatronic?)!  The studios did a good job of describing all the scenes and props that were still there. I couldn't believe how tiny/skinny Hermoine's Yule Ball dress was!

Standing at the gates to Hogwarts

Crossing the infamous Hogwarts bridge

Flying the Weasley's car

Butterbeer is only served in 2 places worldwide

For lunch, Greg partook in his only UK mission: to have fish and chips. Mmmm...greasy!

Next we returned our rental car completely unscratched - though us with a few more grey hairs. Then we took the very long tube ride into London.  We are staying across from Big Ben immediately next to the London Eye - a great location!

When we set out to explore London, I must say I did an awesome job for setting up the classic scene from European Vacation, as I got us stuck in a circular area with only one pedestrian exit ..."Look kids - Big Ben! Parliament!", I exclaimed as we walked around the loop twice!

We hit the nearby Imperial War Museum, which is quite well-done. We esp liked the WWI exhibit. At that point, we started running out of steam, and officially had the tired feet that come with touring Europe!

For dinner, rather than go to China Town for authentic food as planned, we opted for the convenient noodle bar right across the street. 

Logistics:

- We are staying 2 nights here at Premier Inn County Hall, all 5 of us in 1 room (it is by far our most expensive hotel room). Chris chose the short straw but has the nicest sister in the world who gave up her bed to crawl in next to me ... thanks?