Weekend 7: London, England

This weekend I had the great fortune to get to see my Dad! He happened to be doing work in London so I skipped a day of school and turned a 2 day weekend into a 3 day weekend to be able to spend more time with him! I left Metz and took a train to Paris on Thursday afternoon. Then I missed my train to London (forgot to factor in the border control/customs thing). So I arrived an hour later than scheduled but I made it nonetheless!

Olympic rings in the train station

 Friday we got up and went to the new WWII memorial to the Bomber Command of the British and Allied forces that was just down the street from our hotel. It was unveiled by the Queen the day before! (Thursday, the 28th). While we were there, we saw a group of veterans from Canada. Some of them put flowers on the memorial; it was really touching to be there at the same time as them. 

WWII Bomber Command Memorial

Canadian veterans at the memorial the day after it was unveiled!

Then we went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. We also caught the Horse Guards Parade! We wandered around the city a little bit and saw Big Ben, the London Eye, etc. 

Buckingham Palace

changing of the guards

Horse Guards Parade

obligatory phone booth picture

Big Ben

London Eye -- there are 32 pods on the London Eye, one for each borough of London

There were decorations all over the city from the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

At this point it was time to catch our bus to go to the Warner Brothers Studio Making of Harry Potter tour!!!  This museum opened on March 31st and they turned the sound stages (J and K -- how ironic!) into at museum so you get to go on the set and see all the props, etc. I apologize in advance for the amount of pictures in this blog post but I couldn't decide which ones to use. So you got them all!

Entrance to the tour! SO EXCITED

THE Great Hall!

The Great Hall with a bunch of costumes. Pictured here is Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore, and Professor Snape

This is a scale model of the Great Hall ceiling. They use a filming technique to fuse the ceiling and set together to make it look like one piece!

Leaky Cauldron hallway -- it's designed to look 50 feet long. Another technique! 

Gryffindor boys' dormitory

All the wands!

Gryffindor common room

Harry's invisibility cloak -- notice the green on the inside to green screen and make them invisible!

Dumbledore's office

Potions classroom with self-stirring cauldrons

Green screen portraits

the cart used in Gringotts 

Hagrid's hut. They have him sit in the tallest chair at the front of the scene to appear larger

The Burrow -- the pan in the sink scrubbed itself and the carrots chopped themselves! SO COOL!

Me and the Knight Bus

Knocking on the door of Number Four Privet Drive

The wizards chessmen from the Sorcerer's Stone -- known as the Philosopher's Stone in the UK!

The creature room! They showed everything from werewolves, goblins, Hedwig, book of monsters, etc. 

Sometimes in scenes in order to make Hagrid appear larger, they put an animatronic head on his 6'10" body double. This is the back of his head! 

Inside the Book of Monsters to make it scuttle around and bite at things

Diagon Alley

Me and Ollivanders

White card models

Model of Hogwarts that took up an entire room. Absolutely breathtaking. 

Me and the model (just to show you how large it actually was!) I was speechless when I walked in the room. 

Needless to say, I had an amazing, fantastically, wonderful time at the Harry Potter museum :)

Saturday we went to the half price ticket booth and got 2nd row seats for Shrek that night! Wow!! Then we went on one of those open roof tour buses to see all of London. On the way we saw Margaret Thatcher's house (she was home -- which our tour guide told us because of the police officer standing outside!). Her neighbor is Andrew Lloyd Weber. We also saw JK Rowling's house and car!!!!!

The brick house on the right is hers!!! So is the black car in the bottom half obstructed by the bush. So cool. I was really tempted to go back, knock, and ask for an autograph...

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben and the Parliament

These dragons face you if you are entering the city of London

We got off the tour bus and stopped at Tower Bridge. It happened to be it's 118th birthday that day! They also had an exhibit about the Olympics in one of the walkways.

Olympic exhibit at the Tower Bridge!

Atlanta!!!

We went to the engine rooms -- just showing my engineer pride :)

The Olympic rings on Tower Bridge!

After going to the Tower Bridge we went and had some fish and chips for lunch (what else do you eat in London?!). Then we went to the National Gallery Museum and saw some of Monet's paintings (my favorite) and Van Gogh. This countdown to the Olympics was out front of the National Gallery. 

Me and the Olympics sign! 

After the National Gallery we hopped back on the tour bus to see a little bit more before heading back to drop our bags and get ready for Shrek. It was a really cute show and I really enjoyed it! Then we grabbed a delicious dinner and went back for a good night's sleep before having to leave in the morning :( Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast and enjoyed a little free time. Then I went to drop my dad off at his train to go to the airport and caught the tube (they were having trouble with their ticket machine so I got a free ride and saved 4 pounds!) over to St. Pancras station. I got some London 2012 Olympic souvenirs and had lunch and hung out for a couple hours -- I was determined not to miss my train this time! I spent that time and my trains studying for my upcoming MSE test! It was a wonderful weekend. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to see my dad this weekend. I couldn't have been happier :)