London - Day 4

Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3

We didn't have much planned for our last day in London, but we started off the day by visiting the British Museum.

The architecture of the museum was pretty neat. All of the columns and details were pretty interesting.

The museum was free (which was nice!) and was filled with a lot of interesting things. The main attraction is the Rosetta stone. (Pictured on the above right.) You could definitely spend a good chunk of your day exploring the British museum. We saw a mummy and a bunch of sarcophaguses which were kinda neat. There was a Japanese art exhibit that my brother had wanted to see, but unfortunately it had just left the museum.

Reconstruction of the Balawat Gate. I'm not sure if the metal part is original or not, but I know the door itself was reconstructed.

We spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the museum, then headed out to walk around the area around the museum. We stopped by a few tourist shops to pick up some souvenirs before heading back to revisit St Dunstan-in-the-East.

I was glad that St Dunstan-in-the-East was open this time. I was excited to get in and take some pictures. I know most people have probably never heard of St Dunstan in the East, and it certainly isn't a popular tourist spot, but I had read about it online and thought it sounded neat. The church itself has an interesting story, and I thought it would be cool to check out some ruins.

We stopped by Pret a Manger for dinner, then sat by the Thames and ate. The weather was just right for eating outside. Not too hot and not too cold. We then decided to walk by the Tower Bridge one last time to get a few more pictures.

So that is the end of our time in London! Even though we did a lot while in London, there is still SO much more to see there! We all really enjoyed it and I would definitely visit London again! 

Check back next week where I begin to post about our time in France!

London - Day 3 & The Harry Potter Studio Tour

Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 4

Day 3 of our trip was spent doing the Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden, England. We were SO excited for this tour! It was the one activity we did that was somewhat spendy. But it was SO much fun!

 Inside the entrance to the studio. The lobby was filled with photos of the main characters, as well as a couple of the large props, like Hagrid's motorcycle.

Family selfie before the tour! In this room there were screens all around the room showing the movie posters from around the world. There was a short video about how the books became movies, and then we were brought into another room to see another short video about how the movies were made as well as some clips from the movies.

 While waiting in line we got to see Harry's cupboard under the stairs. It looked even smaller and sadder than it does in the movie! At the entrance to the Great Hall. The tour guide had asked if it was anyone's birthday and the guy in the picture raised his hand. They then let him open the door to the Great Hall. So if you can, go on your birthday!

 The Great Hall!

 The house point hourglasses. I thought these were neat to see since they are always talked about in the books but never actually seen in the movies.

Yule ball costumes and props.

 Shrieking Shack hallway | Mirror of Erised        

 Gryffindor boys' dormitory.

Wands used by the main characters.

Potions classroom.

Hagrid's hut.

 Part of the Gryffindor common room.

Dumbledore's office | Horcruxes          

The Burrow.

Delores Umbridge's Ministry of Magic office.

Educational decrees.

 They had a cafe where they sold butterbeer, so we had to try some! It pretty much just tasted like cream soda.

James and Lily's house in Godric's Hollow.

Diagon Alley.

Weasleys’ Wizards Wheezes.

 Model of Hogsmeade.

Concept art. I thought the concept art was all pretty cool! I wish they would have had some copies for sale as pictures or posters!

This is the model of Hogwarts they used for all of the exterior shots. It was pretty cool! 

The model of Hogwarts was the last part of the tour. Then there was the gift shop. They had a ton of things for sale! Everything was kinda expensive, and I ended up buying a couple of postcards, a pack of notebooks, and a coffee mug with the Hogwarts crest on it. 

I would definitely recommend going on the tour if you are a big Harry Potter fan. There was SO much to see, and while I posted a lot of pictures, there was still a lot more!

After the tour we took the tube to the Kings Cross/St. Pancras station. I had wanted to get some pictures of St. Pancras. We did go inside of Kings Cross station, where they have a platform 9 3/4 set up exactly like the pictures I took at the studio tour. There was a huge line and they charged you for a picture, which seemed kind of crazy! 

St. Pancras station.

We then walked over to 187 Gower street, or 221b, the apartment Sherlock and Watson live at in the BBC series of Sherlock.

Unfortunately there was a car in the way, otherwise this would be much cooler!

We then decided to go eat. I had done a bit of research online looking for a great (affordable) place to get fish and chips. I mean, it's a must when in London, right? I came across this place named Fish Bone online, and we were not disappointed!

(Left is the calamari and chips my dad ordered, top right is the cod and chips, which my mom, sister, and I all ordered, and the bottom right is the meat pie my brother ordered since he doesn't like fish.)

It's kind of a hole-in-the-wall type of place, we almost walked right by it (there was scaffolding in the way so we didn't see it at first.) and it's a small restaurant. But so so good! I definitely recommend it if you're in London! All of the fish was really fresh and the chips were excellent and none of the food was greasy at all, unlike most American fish and chips.

So, our day 3 in London was a lot of fun! Check back on Wednesday for our last day in London!