Flying to London was bittersweet. The long anticipated
last trip was finally reality and home was not far in sight. After getting in
late Tuesday night to realize that Paddington was quiet sector of London, we
found some interesting food across the street from our hostel the Pride of
Paddington. Despite closed doors on every street, we found a bar which had one
more hour until closing to toast Kacey on the night leading up to her 21st
birthday! Kacey’s 21st was also shared by a guest… Allison Blumer came to visit
David and the whole group! It was so excited to see a familiar face and be able
to spend time in a foreign country with her!
With so much to see in London, we knew well we had to
pick and choose. Wednesday morning, Ali and I went to see some of London’s most
notable sights: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye! After a quick
runaround the square, we laughed at some horses and their guards at the horse
museum, walked through St. James’s Park, then made it just in time for the
Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace! Using my short height to my advantage,
I weaseled my way all to the front! In this position, I talked with Americans
visiting their son and soon enough discovered that the flag flying on top of
the palace meant that the queen was in the palace! Though the rain tried to get
the best of the changing, the guard’s playing of songs like “I Believe I Can
Fly” and “Walking on Sunshine” dulled the rain.
After inadvertently splitting into groups, Ali, Kacey,
Tiffany, the Carolines, Meghan, and I wandered back to the main sight square
and took some more pictures before through a protest to get to Trafalgar
Square. Here in the pouring rain we snapped a quick picture in the pouring rain
before dashing into the underground and took it to Oxford Circus. The rain
forced us inside for some well needed shopping therapy until we decided to
brave what had become a drizzle. The streets were beautifully decorated in
Christmas lights and signs displaying the Twelve days of Christmas and even
Rolling Stones specialty lights!
To top off a day of shopping and sightseeing we made two stops:
Harrods and most importantly, Platform 9 ¾!!! This touch of magic was just the
prelude where my day would take me on the day following… Harry Potter Studios!
After running through the train station wall, we went to the most magical
department store I have ever gone in: Harrods. It was so ornately decorated and
the Christmas cheer made it even more pretty.
After a long day on our feet, we headed back to the
hostel to discover that we had been signed up for a Matt and David pub crawl in
honor of Kacey’s birthday, the big 2-1! We went to an awesome little pub with
great, traditional, English food and enough room to fit a table of Americans!
We enjoyed friends and the Arsenal game before heading to a bar beautifully
decorated for Christmas and then to the Zoo Bar… which was interesting to say
the least.
Thursday morning marked our last day in London. I could
not have chosen a more perfect place to go than… Hogwarts—luckily, with Kacey and
Fan in tow, I did! Seeing Warner Bros. Studio Tour of Harry Potter was
incredible… just as magical as the movies! To read more about our visit, as
written by Kacey, see below! Even though we spent most of our daylight hours at
Harry Potter Studios, we managed to catch some of London’s most notable bridges
at their most notable time: night! While Millennium Bridge and Tower Bridge were
exciting landmarks, London Bridge itself was quite boring (for this reason,
lots of people get London and Tower Bridge confused!). We also managed to walk
by the great structures of Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Shakespeare’s
Globe. Oh, did I mention it was Thanksgiving? What better a place to have been
for some real turkey than the very country we separated ourselves from… in
order to see as many sights as possible while still making our boat to
Amsterdam, Kacey and Fan and I ate what was my first Chipotle in three months!
Harry Potter Studios Tour,
as written by Kacey McMahon:
Warner Bros. opened the Harry Potter Studio Tour to the
public on March 31, 2012. All eight films were shot in Leavesden Studios from
September 2000 through December 2010. Anxious fans awaited their chance to see
the sets, props, costumes, and characters from the British-American film series
that captured many hearts. The 150,000-square-foot studio holds numerous sets
from the real film series as well as behind-the-scenes footage that revealed
the secrets of how the magic of Harry Potter was created. The three-hour tour
consists of a walk though the Great Hall, Hagrid’s Hut, the Ministry of Magic,
and Diagon Alley. The make-up desk and creature rooms reveal how the crew brought
the mythical characters to life.
Harry Potter is the highest grossing film series of all
time bringing in $7.7 billion in worldwide receipts. The series hosted four
different directors that all brought their own spin to the films. Small changes
can be seen during the walk-through tour of the liberties each director took
with the Hogwarts set. We had a chance to see the scale model of Hogwarts used
in filming. Stuart Craig, the production designer for each of the eight films,
used the model each time the films showed Hogwarts from afar. Craig sketched
ideas for sets onto blank sheets of paper as his imagination ran wild while
reading the novels by J.K. Rowling.
People come from all over the world to visit the studios.
They’ve had a range of people come to the studios from small children dressed
up as Dobby to hysterical crying adults waiting entry through the gates. The
three of us blended in to the crowd of restless fans before we filed into the
Great Hall for the first part of the tour. Here, we learned about the evolution
of costumes the characters from the different houses went through. The ten
years of filming called for many make up and costume changes as the characters
age.
After walking through the Great Hall we were led to the
warehouse that held countless sets from the film. Fan learned the secret of how
the cinematographers brought broomsticks to life. He rode through the streets
of Hogsmeade on a broomstick through the magic of a green screen. We also cut
carrots from across the room on a touch screen computer attached to the knife.
Little things like spinning pots and bubbling potions come to life with ease
through their intricate network of wires and control panels.
We soon came upon the Creature Shop where we grew witness
to work of artists bringing goblins and werewolves to life. Hagrid, a popular
character from all eight films, is so large that a 6’7” rugby player plays him
wearing a stuffed costume and an animatronic head. Special effects are used to
make the character look as cohesive as possible in scenes where the costume is
necessary. Small characters like the Gringotts Goblins are made out of face
clay and molded onto the actor’s faces. So many small details go into the
making of these films that are never caught by the unknowing audience. Seeing
the behind the scenes work of the cast and crew created a new appreciation for
the films that we never could have dreamed of.
In the upcoming years, Warner Bros. is planning on
expanding their warehouse to include other Warner Bros. feature films.
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