Day 05 - London

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We woke to another glorious day today, hardly a cloud in the sky.  The kids most excited about our trip to Warner Bros movie studio in the afternoon to see the Harry Potter studios.

 We started the day with a tube ride to Notting Hill to see the Portobello Road market, and with the help of a local, managed to find our way to the Travel Books shop made famous by the movie "Notting Hill".  The facade was actually a book store on Portobello Road, but the inside filming was done in an actual book shop around the corner in 13 Blenheim Cresent.  We went inside, and didn't leave empty handed - thanks to the kids.  Kristie was also keen to find the "Blue Door" of Hugh Grant's character's home in the movie - which was also just of Portobello Rd at 282 Westbourne Park Road.  Portobello Road itself was interesting enough to walk, but its easy to see (by all the stall locations marked on the road) how the weekend market with the actual road filled with stalls of fresh produce would be much better to visit.


We then headed back toward tube station past beautiful streets with more rows of white terrace houses on to Kensington Gardens.  Just as we walked into the gardens we found the Diana - Princess of Wales Memorial Playground - which you are only allowed in to with children after 9:30am in the morning.  The kids thought it was a pretty impressive playground with a large sail boat fixture with ladders up the masts that they could climb.  It was very well done and different to most playgrounds we've been in before.  Complete with sand and water play areas the kids managed to occupy themselves for an hour or so.
While the kids played in the playground, I ventured off to Kensington Palace - the home of the young royals.  Given the lack of time, I didn't get to go inside but stood outside listening to a tour guide for some time.  The Palace is currently home to Prince William, Kate and their children, while the newly weds Prince Harry and Meaghan live in a "cottage" (cottage only by name - more like a mansion) on the grounds as well.  I was really impressed with the tranquility and peacefulness of the Kensington Gardens, and given it was a work day, it was still a very very popular place for people to come and chill out.  With the morning gone, we made a dash on the tube back to Victoria station to meet our bus to the WB studios.


The bus ride out to the the WB studios was one I'd rather forget.  It was on a traditional London double decker bus (instead of a more comfortable coach that we were expecting), and because it was full, we ended up down the back in the back row sitting onto of the hot noisy engine, for the slowest 2 hour drive imaginable through the suburbs of London.  They played the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie for the kids on the way out, but it was hard to hear and see on the single 15" TV screen from where we were seated.  Why anyone would choose to pay GBP120 more than the cost of entry to travel on this bus to the studios, rather than going by train and free shuttle bus from the train station - is beyond me.  We only purchased the tickets through the tour company as you could not buy tickets for direct entry anytime within the next two weeks - and long after we'd left London.  So our tip for anybody thinking of visiting the WB studios - book well in advance and get on the train.  Save yourself the GBP120 and decide upon your own return time instead of having to be back on a bus in 3 hours.
Ok - rant over.  The Making of Harry Potter - Warner Bros Studio Tour itself was really impressive and spread across two sound stages.  After a welcome video, the tour started out in the Great Hall - where the students of Hogwarts ate their meals, before moving into a studio that has different sets used in the filming, complete with costumes and special effects.  For example, the Griffindor Common Room, Harry Potters bedroom at Hogwarts, Dumbledore's office, and much more.  The kids got to ride a magic broom stick in front of a green screen so they could feature in a video, walk through the Forbidden Forest, board the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9¾, walk Diagon Alley, walk around a full scaled replica of Hogwarts Castle, sit in Harry Potter and Ron Weasley's flying car, sit on Hagrid's motorbike and sidecar, walk Privet Drive, see the triple decker Knight Bus, and much much more.  You got a behind the scenes and look at the art department, costumes and special effects.  The list goes on and on.  For any fan of Harry Potter, this is a must do.  I'll let some of our photos do the rest of the talking.  (More photos to follow in a seperate blog entry)

 The drive back into the city was not as bad, and we were back to the hotel with take-away noodles for dinner by 9:00pm.
The sign says it all
Location: Belvedere Road, London SE1 7PB, United Kingdom

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