Bill and Jen's Adventures: Harry Potter Studios with Friends

I visited the Harry Potter Studios a few years ago, but when an old junior high / high school friend asked if we could meet up for a day at Hogwarts when she's in London, I jumped at the chance.

I'm playing Quiddich!

Everyone probably has people from high school that they re-connect with on Facebook and find the only thing you have in common is where you went to school. And then you may have someone like my friend Erin, who I hadn't seen in at least 20 years, but as soon as we re-connected on Facebook I knew we'd be good friends even if we had just met at a coffee shop.

Harry Potter's bedroom under the stairs

It was fantastic to spend the day with her and her family. They were having a great time in London and were super excited to see all the Harry Potter stuff.

The great hall

Erin's daughter had read all of the books, but her son, who is younger, had only watched the first movie. He still got a big kick out of seeing all the stuff!

See, I'm there!

This being my second time to the studio, I really absorbed more of the detail that they put into making the movies so magical. I think the studio tours are still sold out every day, so I don't see any interest in Harry Potter waning.

Hogwarts's Clock

Sadly, we arrived the week before the newest exhibit, The Forbidden Forest, was set to open. Oh, well, I'll just have to go back when someone else comes for a visit :-)

Dumbledor's office

That said, we were the last group to gain entrance that day and we still had two solid hours to tour all of the sets, props, costumes, etc. As it got closer to closing, the crowds thinned considerably and I was able to take photos without a ton of photobombers (intentional or otherwise) getting in my shots.

Erin and I in Dumbledor's office

And there weren't lines for photo booths, or to pose at platform 9 3-4. All in all, not bad timing on our part.

Erin's kids heading to Hogwarts

Unfortunately, while we were buying our train tickets to get to Watford (the town outside London where the studio is located) a bad guy drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and then attacked a police officer with a knife. We were several miles away, but everyone, everywhere was on super-high alert. At the end of the night I had to walk two busy blocks in central London to get to my hotel. In the short 7-minute or so walk, five police cars with lights and sirens blaring screamed down the road.

That said, I spent the next morning and afternoon in London doing a bit of shopping. I cannot remember a time when so many people, the teaming masses, were so polite, so helpful, so friendly. It helped remind me that 99% of the human race are good. Yay!

Dobby is a good house elf!

Okay, back to Harry Potter. The last room of the tour contains all of the boxes from Olivander's Wand Shop. Each and every person who worked on the seven (eight, counting the last book twice) movies is listed on one of the boxes. An employee was showing people various well-known names, and the one below brought a tear to my eye.