I wish that the reason for my lack of updates was that I was at the Hogwarts castle. From the pictures I'm posting, it may even seem plausible. Alas, it is not so. But our flat is a close second, even though it did not have wifi the first night we were there (Monday night). Thus the reason for no post on Monday. When we got into London on Monday, we first visit King's Cross. This was mostly (okay entirely) due to the fact that we wanted to visit Platform 9 and three-quarters. We had a hard time finding it at first, until we found a queue of people. There was a very enthusiastic overseer who tried her very best to make everyone jump and pose whilst pushing the car to take a picture. Ginny and I passed on the jumping, but we did get our pictures taken with the cart.
After Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, we braved the tube system again and successfully found our little flat on Warwick Road. It was quite nice, except, as I mentioned, the internet was bum. So we had to wait around for the fix-it guys to come. They said they couldn't fix it and had to come back the next day to replace it. Thus the lack of updates. By that time, it was already later in the evening so we decided to go out and explore the neighborhood and look for some dinner. After much deliberation, we finally wound up at a local pub. The food was good and we were full and tired, so back to the flat for some tele and then bed.
Yesterday was an incredibly packed day. We started out the day at the London Eye. Despite my dislike of heights, the Eye was quite a bit of fun, especially since it provided excellent photographic opportunities. It was a pretty classic cloudy and windy London morning. One of my fellow Eye passengers remarked that it was too bad it wasn't sunny. I said that then it wouldn't look like proper London. So now I have some proper London photos.
After the eye we went on foot to explore the surrounding area. We first stopped at Westminster Abbey, originally intending to go inside. Once we saw the admission price, however, we settled for an exterior visit.
Next up on our list was Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. The National Gallery is pretty amazing, not just because of the art it hosts, but because it is free to the public. We were able to see Van Gogh, Cezanne, Degas, Monet, and many more.
After the National Gallery, we went to one of the many nerd holy sites in London - 221B Baker Street. Again, we were planning on going into the Sherlock Museum, but price and lines deterred us and we were quite satisfied to take photos from the outside and browse the Sherlock Holmes shop next door.
After Baker Street, we went to a nearby park (I forget the name), where we found a variety of ducks and dogs. We even encountered some baby ducks!
Part of this park was called Primrose Hill, which offered an excellent view of the city. It turned out to be a pretty mild, sunny day.
By the time we climbed to the top of Primrose Hill and rested for a while, we had to head back to the flat because we had bought tickets to War Horse (since we were told numerous times that seeing a show was a must). It was a pretty amazing show, and the puppets used for the horses were incredible. Whoever made the puppets must have spent several lifetimes studying horse anatomy because the movements were incredibly natural and believable. By the time the show was over, it was nearly 10 and we didn't find dinner until 11. We ended up eating at the restaurant next door and then promptly crashing. I thought about blogging, but then I fell asleep.
Today's big event was visiting the WB Harry Potter studios. It cost an arm and a leg to get out there on the public transit system, but it was completely worth it. It's hard not be jealous of the people who actually got to work at this place. I took over 200 photos while there...it was pretty much the coolest thing ever. The amount of detail they put into the props and costumes was incredible. Did you know that one of the gents who played Hagrid was a 6'10" ex-rugby player? And since he was still too short to be half-giant size, they made an animatronic head to sit on top of his. It is uncannily life-like. Another fact - you know those thousands of wants in Ollivanders? Each of those was hand-inscribed by members of the team.
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| Potions Dungeon |
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| Dumbledore's Office |
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| Buckbeak |
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| Hogwarts Model |
We ended up back at Trafalgar square so we could make our way to Buckingham Palace. It was a beautiful day for walking through the Mall and around the Palace. We even got to see the changing of the guard. The one thing that confused me was that these particular guards were wearing gray instead of red...we overheard some people say that it was because the guards weren't British. I don't know what that means
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