Easter Trips - London and Harry Potter Studio Tour
It's amazing how much for granted I took living near London. A 20 minute train ride and you'd be there. Now we have to jaunt to the rellies and stay over night. This Easter El nagged us to go to London - she's been several times before but remembers little of it, so we have to revisit some places. Top of her list was Madame Tussauds. Then Science Museum and anything else we could fit in before we keeled over with exhaustion.
I've been several times and I think J & I did a trip when El was a babe. Highly overpriced and to be honest it was so crowded and pushy this year, not very enjoyable. Despite prebooking a slot there were massive queues and crowds with sharp elbows. We wouldn't have gone there but she did want to see it at least once. That's done for a while then. I could think of so many better ways to spend over £80. I will say the best thing about the whole Mme T day out was the 3D Avengers animated movie at the very end. That was fun. The rest left me feeling a bit ripped off.
After lunch we staggered out and caught a River boat down to St Katherine's quay near Tower Bridge. I used to work near here many, many years ago, so I know this part of London quite well. Or did, more to the point. Of course in true British fashion the unseasonal warm weather ended just before the Easter break so it was a bit fresh. Grabbed a pint at the Dickens Inn and walked back to the Tower Hill station. That part was fairly enjoyable. A bit of sun would have made a world of difference. Got a chance to see 'The Shard' near 'The Gherkin' - just loving these names.
We took a niece and nephew along with us. The Science Museum has great hands on areas, plus so much else to see. Good value in so much that there's free entry. Personally I'd have preferred the V & A but the kids would have been bored as heck. Nephew was sick (over me) on the way home so that put a downer on the day.
The best trip of the whole holiday by quidditch pitch was the Harry Potter Studio tour ! - I'd booked this the day the website opened last year and what a fantastic place. About the same price as Madame Tussauds but including a digital guide and Souvenir Book, it was far more enjoyable and none of the crush and hassle. If you are a fan of the books/films and are interested in film making etc then I can highly recommend. We're a family of HP geeks really. If we are passing a film location we'll stop and take photos and soak up the atmosphere. This place didn't disappoint. My favourite sets were The Great Hall, Diagon Alley and Dumbledore's office but the others were charming too. So much detail and things to see. I could have really done with a two day pass and spread the experience, by the end of the day we were a little tired. I wanted to spend so much more time just looking at every single tiny detail. The scale model of Hogwarts is stunning and photos don't do it justice.
A nice touch at the end of the tour was the wand room (a bit like Ollivanders) Over 4000 wandboxes each labelled with the name of every single person who contributed to the 8 films.
I've been several times and I think J & I did a trip when El was a babe. Highly overpriced and to be honest it was so crowded and pushy this year, not very enjoyable. Despite prebooking a slot there were massive queues and crowds with sharp elbows. We wouldn't have gone there but she did want to see it at least once. That's done for a while then. I could think of so many better ways to spend over £80. I will say the best thing about the whole Mme T day out was the 3D Avengers animated movie at the very end. That was fun. The rest left me feeling a bit ripped off.
After lunch we staggered out and caught a River boat down to St Katherine's quay near Tower Bridge. I used to work near here many, many years ago, so I know this part of London quite well. Or did, more to the point. Of course in true British fashion the unseasonal warm weather ended just before the Easter break so it was a bit fresh. Grabbed a pint at the Dickens Inn and walked back to the Tower Hill station. That part was fairly enjoyable. A bit of sun would have made a world of difference. Got a chance to see 'The Shard' near 'The Gherkin' - just loving these names.
We took a niece and nephew along with us. The Science Museum has great hands on areas, plus so much else to see. Good value in so much that there's free entry. Personally I'd have preferred the V & A but the kids would have been bored as heck. Nephew was sick (over me) on the way home so that put a downer on the day.
The best trip of the whole holiday by quidditch pitch was the Harry Potter Studio tour ! - I'd booked this the day the website opened last year and what a fantastic place. About the same price as Madame Tussauds but including a digital guide and Souvenir Book, it was far more enjoyable and none of the crush and hassle. If you are a fan of the books/films and are interested in film making etc then I can highly recommend. We're a family of HP geeks really. If we are passing a film location we'll stop and take photos and soak up the atmosphere. This place didn't disappoint. My favourite sets were The Great Hall, Diagon Alley and Dumbledore's office but the others were charming too. So much detail and things to see. I could have really done with a two day pass and spread the experience, by the end of the day we were a little tired. I wanted to spend so much more time just looking at every single tiny detail. The scale model of Hogwarts is stunning and photos don't do it justice.
A nice touch at the end of the tour was the wand room (a bit like Ollivanders) Over 4000 wandboxes each labelled with the name of every single person who contributed to the 8 films.