For those of you who don't know, I'm actually quite a big fan of the Harry Potter stories. I was one of the people a bit/quite a lot disappointed fans when the last movie wasn't close enough to the movie...
Anyway, I really wanted to do this tour after I heard about it.
It was quite clever, as you could get to Watford under your own steam, or catch bus from London. Peter and I decided to catch the bus from Watford. So, we caught the underground to Euston and them the slow train - 45 mins - to Watford. When we got there, we were a bit early, so we decided to have some lunch first, and handily there was a pub next to the train station - The Flag... I had sausages and mash with onion gravy and peas, and it was good! Peter had chicken. We both had a rather good beer - a Mole Catcher.
Then we very fortuitously got to the bus stop just as the bus drew up to take us to the studio. There were lots of people waiting to catch the bus. We were almost the oldest! I forgot to take a photo of the bus as it was rather a special double decker!
When we got there, we changed our booking for real tickets and lined up to take the tour. It took me a little while to realise the cupboard,under the stairs was there! I was worrying about getting in!
For anyone who hasn't read the Harry Potter stories, when we first meet Harry he is sleeping in the cupboard under the stairs and is locked in there as a punishment when he doesn't do what his aunt or uncle want.
The tour is very clever, there is a short photo montage in one room,then a short movie in a movie theatre about how the book was found and a movie conceived, and then you go into the Great Hall set and get a short talk about it, and then sent out to look at the rest of the displays and sets.
Some of my favourite things were the details on the costumes, eg Gilderoy Lockhart and Bellatrix Lestrange's clothes, the set for Dumbledore's study and the Griffin staircase. The wizard's chessmen and the scaled model of the Hogwarts castle.
My suggestion is, don't buy the coffee/hot chocolate sold there once inside the tour, and I didn't hear anyone saying they liked the butter beer!
I enjoyed the tour, especially the first bit. I am lucky Peter was happy to come along for the ride!
We caught the bus back to Watford and then took an express strain back to London, which only took 20 mins.
Once we got back to our hotel, we walked around to the Santorini Greek restaurant and had a very nice Greek meal. We had zucchini croquettes and then I had stuffed zucchini and tomato, which was very nice.
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