Seeing the Queen and casting spells

Thursday 14 June 2012  - Hello Marm and wicked spells

Day 63 and 96 to go

I didn’t sleep particularly well last night but it was better than Paul who couldn’t get the Four Seasons songs out of his head all night and barely slept.  As a result we were up earlier than normal.

We had breakfast while watching TV and doing our washing. At 9.30am we drove into Hitchin. It was a slower than usual trip due to people heading in to see the Queen. I had Paul drop me along the route as there was already plenty lining up. I figured it wasn’t worth going into the market square. With my spot sorted all I needed to do was wait it out.

Paul was intending on doing some shopping and then find a pub, but getting anywhere was not easy due to the sea of people, so he decided he would hang out with me instead! I am sure this was a decision he would regret.

It was not easy standing and trying to hold your spot but we managed and at 10.45am the motorcade drove past and we saw the Queen. Unfortunately I only managed to take video as it all happened so quick I couldn’t change the camera over. Oh well. 

The swarms of people made their move and so did we stopping for groceries before coming home. I rang Aunty Ruth for her birthday, then Mum and Dad to catch up on home stuff.

We then got ourselves organised again and on the road, this time to the Warner Brothers studio in Leavesden to see the Harry Potter experience.  

 
View Larger Map We arrived at 1pm and collected our tickets before going inside the first sound stage “J”. We checked out the gift shop, where I could try on the different things. It was a money making machine! We then sat in the café before making our way into the studio at 1.50pm passing the cupboard under the stairs.

On entering we watched a video about the series before entering a theatre to watch how the studio has come together and then it began with “Welcome to Hogwarts” and the giant doors of the dining hall opening and we entered the room with all the tables set ready for the new students. It was quite impressive walking onto the set. They had costumes and props all laid out. It was like being in the movie!

We then wandered through the layout of other sets. There were costumes and hair & makeup, the giant Hogwarts’ gates, Harry Potter’s room and the Gryffindor common room. All the tapestries and paintings that were created were hung on the walls. The props they needed and there were thousands were there to see including the tri-wizard cup, the goblet of fire, the snitch and the horcuruxes.

Dumbledore’s office with the Pensieve, everything was included. They had the Gringotts cart, Hagrid’s Enfield sidecar bike and brooms in front of green screens. We could look in on the pink and cat obsessed Umbridge and her gaudy room. There were fronts from the Ministry of Magic, Hagrid’s hut and the Weasley’s home. 

As we left the J sound stage we came outside where we could have a butter beer. I enjoyed this drink it was like a creaming soda icrecream float. Yum. In the outside area or back lot, they had Hagrid’s bike that you could sit in, so we did. They also had the flying Ford Anglia car and the triple-decker purple bus you could enter.  Awesome.

The outside area was also home to Privet Drive and the house front of number 4, as well as the Potter house, the Hogwarts bridge and the giant chess pieces.

We then entered the ‘K’ Soundstage. This section contained the special effects department and the latex masks and creatures that were created. It was great to be able to see the animatronics behind the scenes including Buckbeak. 

We then wandered up Diagon Alley, where all the shop fronts lean in on you as you wander the Alley past Olivander’s wand shop, the Owl store and the Weasley’s joke shop.

The next areas were dedicated to the tech drawings, paintings and the amazing 3D models that all had to be created before the film began. The best model was the complete Hogwarts campus in which so much of the filming took place. It was so intricate and really incredible.  

Our final stop was the inside of Olivander’s where all the wands used on set were kept in their box and labelled with the actor’s name. There were literally thousands of them.

With our tour complete we exited through the shop and made our way to the car and the 45min journey home. 

We made it back by 5pm just in time for Paul to sit down and watch the next Euro match between Italy and Croatia. I loaded my photos and then made dinner. The salmon we had was delicious.

With dinner and the dishes out of the way we got comfy on the lounge. With the first soccer match over with a 1 all draw we saw the news and the article on the Queen’s visit.  The second match was Spain v Ireland. Not much of a contest.

We got our things ready for tomorrow, as it will be an early start tomorrow. We hope to be out of here by 8 as we have a brewery tour to complete in the Cotswolds before heading to Silverstone to see some of the practice after lunch. Busy day.

With the soccer finishing in a 4 – 0 drubbing we were off to bed for a well-earned rest.