harry potter

I have to do a post completely devoted to Harry Potter because a lot of our time in London was devoted to that, and I wouldn't change a thing! One of the first things we had scheduled after arriving in London was the HP Studio Tour. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was honestly SO COOL. They turned the studios where they filmed Harry Potter into this giant tour where you can go at your own pace and see everything that was used to film the movies. Like everything. Sets, costumes, initial drawings, etc. Kev and I were so blown away! 

The Great Hall! 

Hagrid! Snape! Filch! 

We happened to be there during the time that they had brought the goblet of fire into the Great Hall. It was neat!

Fleur! 

Cedric, Harry, Voldemort

Okay I'm going to stop saying what everything is because I could be here for hours but look at all these details! 

I don't know why the mirror of Erised made me so excited? Maybe I thought it would actually work? haha

Butterbeer! 

Just hopping on the Knight Bus! 

Number Four, Privet Drive. 

This made me LOL:

How cool right??

Godric's Hollow, RIP

Diagon Alley

This small Hogwarts and the grounds was at the end and it was so cool! It made a lot of sense that they would film Hogwarts like that. 

Okay and then our other big Harry Potter thing was going to see The Cursed Child! I mentioned when Kev surprised me with tickets in this post.  We were both SO GIDDY. These tickets were so hard to come by and I felt so grateful and excited that we got to see it! It is shown in London's West End (where all the shows are) and at the Palace Theatre! I didn't know till we were there, but that was the theatre that Andrew Lloyd Webber owned and lived in the attic where he wrote The Phantom of the Opera! It also was where Les Miserables was shown for a long long time. (don't remember the exact years) I loved learning all of that history! 

So HP and the Cursed Child is actually two separate plays and usually they are shown on different days, but we were lucky to catch tickets on Sunday where they were both shown on the same day. So we were at the theatre for like 8 hours that day with a couple hours in the middle to wander around London. And it was lightly raining. It was quite lovely! 

The show itself was unbelievable. I had no idea what it was going to be like, but it far far exceeded any expectations that I had. The music was all done by Imogen Heap and was fabulous. The special effects were unreal and it felt like they were actually doing magic. The actors were SO GOOD. Like SO GOOD. Good Job JK. It was Kev and my favorite theatre experience to date. It was all just so magical! I couldn't get over it and I still can't to be honest! This is one of those experiences that will be one of my favorite experiences to look back on in life. So memorable and incredible!