I was really glad we had saved this one to the end because everyone was starting to get pretty burnt out on traveling and things were getting a bit snarky. We had refreshed breakfast food and were figuring out the quirks of the Hostel. At 8 Jeri and I walked down to the store to pick up sandwiches and snacks for the day. At 8:30 the students met us at the tube station. I had wanted to use a different line than the last time because our route took us in and out of downtown London in rush hour. Unfortunately, some of the guys got in ahead of me and there was no choice, but to take the same route as the day before. This morning we lost some girls at the first station because they werent' able to push onto the train, but we just waited at the interchange for them to arrive a few minutes later. Meanwhile, there were signaling problems and delays on the tracks I had planned on taking, so maybe it was a good thing we were on the first line. Anyway, we got to Euston station and found a direct train to Wayford Junction which is where we needed to get off. While on that train, I talked with a couple who were worried because they weren't getting to the Studio when they were supposed to because of those tube track delays. I was worried for them, but it turned out all for the best. Jeri excitedly chatted with the young woman about Harry Potter books and all the other books she reads.
From the train station, it is a 2 pound/person bus ride to the studio, but everyone was excited because it was a double Decker bus all painted snazzily with HP images. We were all saying it was too bad the train from Euston didn't have a food trolley because lots of people would have bought chocolates. We got our tickets and learned that, even though our reservation said 10:30, we had a 1/2 hour window to enter, so the friends I had made who were late were able to get in without any problems. The Studio says the tour takes about 3 hours, so I gave the students 4 and told them I would meet them at 2:30 PM. We could have gotten audio tours and other tour improvements, but I didn't see them before we went in and probably wouldn't have paid the extra anyway. When we first got in, there was a short movie about the ten years of making of the HP movies. It amazes me that the actors who played Ron, Harry and Hermione were Jeri's age at the start of the filming. From there, we entered the gates of Hogwarts and into the great hall. We were given time to take some pictures and then various things were pointed out that we might have missed. At that point, we were invited to the back of the set where lots of other parts were included.
The room was a set designer's dream. There were various rooms built in including the Gryffindor boys' dorm and common room. There was a charming note that the beds were used for all the movies, but in the later one, they didn't film the actors from the knees down because their feet were sticking off the ends of the rather short beds. We got to see the potions classroom which kept having to be enlarged as more action took place there in later books. We got to see the Headmaster's tower and hear the set designer talk about how the interior was inspired by the original drawings of the exterior. Then, I indulged my daughter and myself and we went to the green screen room and flew in a car and on broomsticks. I purchased pictures of the broomstick flights, but the car one was a bit goofy. Since we wore robes for the flying, I also got to shoot a picture of Jeri in a robe and one of the nice workers took a picture of the two of us together.
This lead to Diagon Alley complete with Wand shop, cauldron store, etc. There was a plaque discussing how the alley changed during the years of shooting.
So, now came a series of rooms devoted to the artists, illustrators, painters, and animators. The drawings were incredible and I hadn't realized that many pictures of the scene would be drawn before it was shot. First a sketch, then more detailed sketch, and then a painting with actors painted in. There were also white card models built to scale where a tiny camera could be moved around so that the directors would know what the camera shot on the set would need to look like if it were being shot through a window or something. Nearly last came a huge, detailed, scale model of the Hogwarts Castle. This was in a green screen room, so that all the medium distance shots could be taken of this model. Then, the background was added on the green part and the action melded in. Pretty amazing. The model wasn't originally at this studio, but they moved it there for the tourists. Finally, we moved into a room of thousands of wand boxes, each one a tribute to someone who worked on the movie.
Okay, so where do tours end? The gift shop. We couldn't leave without donating a bit more cash to the studio, but in the end I did decide not to purchase my son a Gryffindor tie (but I was tempted). I then met up with the students, took the bus to the train to Euston Station. I put another 5 pounds on the students' oyster cards and returned to the hostel to drop off our stuff (by this point is was positively hot) and have a cup of tea. From here, Jeri and I went and found a geocache on our way to Poundland which was at our first hostel. We then found Poundworld (more pounds spent) and found a second geocache. By this time, it was dinner time. I had given the students money to spend on their dinners with instructions to bring me the receipts. Jeri and I had a nice meal at a Thai restaurant, walked back to the Tube station, bought more breakfast food and off to bed. All was good for a few hours until the students woke me up when they got back from Wicked. Then, at the same time, there were two inebriated guys yelling at each other outside the windows. In my sleep-fogged mind, I was sure it was my students and was ready to pack them onto the plane that night. They have since assured me that it wasn't them and that they were actually quite sober having gone to the show instead of a pub. No matter, they did wake me up and it did take me two hours to fall back asleap. I am going to be one tired puppy when I get back to Iowa.
