So Katie is definitely not in the UK anymore, but I still have a few more pictures to share from my last few days in London with my family. I apologize for taking 3 weeks to get around to this but it’s been SO NICE to sit around my house and do absolutely nothing after an amazing but very tiring trip like that! So without further ado…
If you’ll remember from 5 years ago when I published my last post, it ended on Monday. And it already felt like it had flown by. Even though we weren’t leaving until Saturday, it felt like time just sped up and while we crammed a lot into our last few days, it was kind of weird to get on that tube to the airport after being there for almost 4 months. It just didn’t register that I was leaving! But we’re not to that part yet. So let’s start with:
Tuesday
Tuesday was a big exciting day for me. Our only solid plans for the whole trip were to go visit The Making of Harry Potter at the Warner Bros Studio outside of London. We were all VERY excited for this. The lobby was filled with giant pictures of the cast from the first and last movies, and as you wait to enter, you get to see the original cupboard under the stairs where Harry had to stay during his first years in the Dursley house! 
Next, we entered into a big theater where there was a short presentation on what we were getting ready to see. The screen rolled up and all of a sudden we were standing in front of giant double doors that steadily opened to reveal THE GREAT HALL. One of the cool things about visiting at Christmas time was the the Great Hall was decorated for the Yule Ball, so we saw all of the ice sculptures and stage for the band up front.
After they finally shooed us out of the Great Hall (seriously we were like the last ones in there because we kept taking pictures; that was like the theme of this entire visit haha) we entered into this huge area that had a bunch of set and costume pieces. It also had lots of props like the Triwizard Cup, the Snitch, things like that. Super cool! Like, Daniel Radcliffe held this in his very hands!!! Eep!
Also. Throughout the entire tour, they had lots of signage telling you about little behind the scenes things and had videos playing here and there with different interviews from the Cast and Crew about an aspect of the production of the movies. So if you got tired of taking pictures, which we eventually sort of did (or you’re lucky enough to run out of space on your phone) you can stop and take your time reading and watching all these things. I really learned a lot about the whole movie making process and I think that it’s absolutely amazing that we have the technology to create such visually amazing films!
These were just a handful of all the wigs that the characters had to wear. Some of them, like the Malfoys, were pretty obvious to me, but I didn’t realize that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had their own wigs too! I just thought that they used their own hair but GUESS NOT.
This is the Gryffindor Boys Dormitory. It was much much cooler in person. I found that so many of these big sets like this one were kind of dark so it was really hard to get a sense for what it looked like from the picture. But by golly we still took them! And so did everyone else there! Seriously the big things like this you would wait in lines to take a picture; it was a little crazy but what’s better to act crazy about than Harry Potter?? That’s right nothing.
Next we moved into an area that still sort of involved sets, but also had some special effects. This broom is what they used to film all of the Quidditch and other flying scenes; looks a little different than in the movies!
You could actually walk all through the train and look into the carriages which had been each decorated from a different year of Harry Potter’s schooling. Our family also did this fun little interactive thing where we sat in little carriages and did some very good acting I must say in response to different prompts while being filmed!
So as you can see we’re outside at this point. We had just gone through their Backlot Cafe where you can get food and butterbeer and then walk outside to see things like the Hogwarts Bridge, Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, Mr. Weasley’s car, and Hagrid’s motorcycle + sidecar. Which we all took pictures with. The next section of the tour took us through rooms devoted to design and special effects (think the Goblins, Buckbeak, different creatures, etc.) and down Diagon Alley. I know it’s the real one but nothing can beat walking through the bustling Diagon Alley at Universal Studios when you can go in all the shops and really take it all in!! But the London studio wins on pretty much everything else haha. Finally there were some models of Hogwarts and then for the grand finale:
*angel chorus*
I’m thinking of transferring schools.
So that was fun!
And for every picture I put on here there were 4 more that I didn’t include. Because there’s more to tell! And also my phone camera ran out of space which was sad haha.
Our day with Harry Potter was not over though. During the first week of December I had visited the British Library to see the History of Magic exhibition they were doing. Unfortunately, you had to have a ticket for it and double unfortunately, they were sold out the week that my family was in town. Well thank goodness for British phone plans because I was able to call them, find out that they held a few tickets back for the day of, and then called again Tuesday morning to get tickets for our family to see it! My mom had especially been wanting to go through it and because I enjoyed it so much, I was really happy that my family go to experience it as well! Plus we were already on a Harry Potter high so that made it even better!
So at this point it’s like 5pm. Yes we spent our entire day doing Harry Potter stuff why aren’t you?? But the day did not end there. Because I had scored tickets for Hamilton for me and my mom to go see! But wait Katie, I thought you already saw Hamilton in London? Why yes, I did, and it was SO DANG GOOD that I was perfectly happy to see it again. Plus I really wanted my mom to see just how DANG GOOD it was! And to top it off, tickets here are insanely cheap. And you have to be kind of smart about it because the show will be sold out and then suddenly 2 pairs of tickets pop up but then they’re gone within 15 minutes. But me seeing it twice in London was cheaper than me seeing it once in the US. Which is insane because it’s the West End in London! Like reallyyyy high quality actors and actresses. Our show was at 7:30 that night so we grabbed a bite to eat, went to the apartment to get ready, and then 30 minutes later headed to the beautiful Victoria Palace Theater.
But the best part was our actual tickets. We had box seats. So let me just break this down again. We were seeing a Broadway hit sensation. In the West End of London. 2 weeks into the shows premiere in London. With our own private box that had real chairs and it was just the two of us. For less than 50 pounds each. Amazing.
I honestly thought the show was even better the second time that I saw it and I could tell little things that they had tweaked from the first time I went and saw it which was kind of fun. It is such a high quality show with amazing messages and I am SO GLAD that I got the chance to see it twice. So everyone, if you haven’t seen Hamilton yet, just fly to London to see it!!! 
Wednesday
I’m apologizing up front because at this point I’m not going to have a lot of pictures to share because many of these things I had already previously done and had taken plenty of pictures!!
Wednesday morning was spent in South Kensington. We popped over to the V&A Museum and the 2 hours we gave ourselves there was definitely not enough time to get through everything. But I really love that museum and was so happy my family got to see it because they had never seen it before. And everything we didn’t get through… a reason to go back! We had to leave when we did because we had a date with Afternoon Tea at 12:30 at the Orangery in Kensington Palace! That’s right, we had tea at a royal palace.
I know I say this every time I do tea, but I seriously wish I could do this every day. Also, this place was amazing. Unlimited tea, hot chocolate, scones, pretty much anything for less than 30 pounds each! And in the beautiful serene atmosphere of the Orangery you really did feel like royalty!
When we finished, we walked around the palace grounds a little bit and then headed back to the Natural History Museum. My only experience in London this time with the Natural History Museum was at the beginning of Fall Break for every single child in London and it was a little overwhelming. This time we went in the back way and made our way through more of the exhibits so that I was able to see a lot more and really appreciate it more! And of course we ended with the dinosaurs. And the blue whale. I’m looking at you Dad
We had already done quite a bit of walking in that we had walked a mile to the palace and back from it, but our walking had only just begun for this day. Through a few miscalculations, I caused us to have to walk like 13 miles that day. And of course it was the day I had chose to wear heeled boots. So it was a bit of a struggle. But basically if you keep going down the road that the V&A and Natural History Museum face, then you get to Harrod’s. Which of course we went into.
So this brought up the conversation of big London department stores. And I had never actually been to Fortnum and Mason which is a big one. And one of the thing’s they’re famous for is tea. I was trying to find this specific tea blend that I had had at afternoon tea earlier that was AMAZING; Earl Grey with blue flowers (I eventually found a similar one at Whittard Tea… love that place). I also thought it was a lot closer than it was so we trekked all the way through Kensington and past Green Park and basically almost to Piccadilly Circus (really apologizing to my family again here because we went an extra mile… or two…. than I thought we were supposed to go). I did enjoy going in Fortnum and Mason; it has a very classy regal vibe to it while Harrod’s is just dripping in the “I have more money than I know what to do with” vibe. We didn’t spend long there though, because we were hungry. Since we were so close, we popped over to Chinatown for dinner. We enjoyed huge servings of Chinese food, and then, because we hadn’t had enough walking already, walked back in the direction that we had come. Why? Because we wanted to go visit Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland! A bunch of my friends had gone previously and I knew it was a really big thing to go to – we just didn’t really know what it was. We were expecting that it was gonna be like a cute walk through a bunch of fun lights and sip your warm drink while listening to festive music thing. It was really a full blown carnival. Which was fine, except that we really were expecting the first one more. Mom and I got some mulled wine (of course!) and we walked around the entire complex, which was kind of a maze and incredibly huge! There were all sorts of rides and carnival games and stalls and pop up food stands which was fun to walk around in for a little bit, but then I think we all got tired and wanted to go back to a warm and cozy apartment where we weren’t surrounded by people carrying around stuffed animals bigger than themselves (I will never understand…)
On Thursday (the bold heading is not working for me now haha) we took a little day trip to Oxford (link to my previous trip for pictures). It’s always fun to go back there because it feels so much quieter and quainter and it really is a nice escape from London. Plus all of the architecture and college buildings are so beautiful to look at!
Sadly we had to head back to London after a few hours there because there was still so much to do and see in London! The family wanted to go to the British Museum, and I needed to go and check with my phone provider over there because my data had stopped working (turns out they had a glitch in the system which wasn’t showing me that my data had run out, so they gave me 14 days of unlimited data free! 3 Mobile is the way to go everyone!)
Friday
Our last full day in London 
We spent the morning at Portobello Market Road which is always a fun and colorful visit. Then to reward Tyler for making it through all of the shopping we stopped by Scandinavian Kitchen to pick up some coveted Norwegian chocolate. One of my best finds in London if I do say so myself! We ate lunch at a yummy Mexican place called Wahaca, and then headed to South London to visit the Imperial War Museum. Our time in London was almost out and we knew we wanted to finish the day at the British Museum (on Fridays they’re open until 8pm!) but I really wanted my family to check out the Imperial War Museum! I’m so glad we got the chance to go through it again because it is so well done! I felt like throughout this whole week I was kind of showing off my city – there’s so many wonderful things in London!
We spent the morning at Portobello Market Road which is always a fun and colorful visit. Then to reward Tyler for making it through all of the shopping we stopped by Scandinavian Kitchen to pick up some coveted Norwegian chocolate. One of my best finds in London if I do say so myself! We ate lunch at a yummy Mexican place called Wahaca, and then headed to South London to visit the Imperial War Museum. Our time in London was almost out and we knew we wanted to finish the day at the British Museum (on Fridays they’re open until 8pm!) but I really wanted my family to check out the Imperial War Museum! I’m so glad we got the chance to go through it again because it is so well done! I felt like throughout this whole week I was kind of showing off my city – there’s so many wonderful things in London!
Saturday morning we got up bright and early, got our luggage down into the tube station and onto the tube, and took the long journey via the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport where our travel went very smoothly all the way back home!
I could do the whole “this trip has really changed me and I will treasure it forever I miss it so much” but I think that’s already been made apparent through all of my posts. I know that I will go back some day, and I have even more of a travel bug than I did before (just ask my mom about me trying to convince her to visit various destinations for Spring Break!). I guess that I’m just really thankful that I had the means to have this experience and had the opportunities that I did (because not everyone does) and now I’m even more ready to get out there and use the skills and experiences that I’ve been given to really be the best I can be!
Thank you so much for following me on this journey, hopefully there will be more in the near future!
Lots of love and Britishness,
-Katie 
Katie, a senior Biology major, is spending the Fall 2017 semester studying Health & Society at King's College in London through Arcadia University.
Read more from Katie at https://katientheuk.wordpress.com/
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