Cambridge to London - Warner Brother's Harry Potter

Warner Brothers Harry Potter * London Eye

We were so lucky to score 2 more tickets to the Warner Brother's Harry Potter experience this morning - because of my earlier scheduling error, we only had 5 and although we could send our 5 children without us, it's always good for Eric and me to be around to help moderate any excessive poking or touching (of eachother - not the exhibits).

The experience is a must for any Harry Potter fanatic.  With the exception of Emma and Eric, we are all huge Harry Potter fans.  The thing I appreciated the most was learning about all the talented people it takes to make such an amazing movie - costume, make-up, set design, animatronics, animal trainers, computers, graphics, engineers, etc, etc.  We were able to walk through many original sets including the great hall and the night bus.  We saw scores of costumes and props.  Several times I was amazed to learn that what I had assumed was a computer generated image, was actually a real item.  I learned that Hagrid is played by 2 actors, one of which is a large Rugby player and Hagrid face is a complex computer controlled face for many scenes.  We even sampled butter bear (cream soda with some whip cream on top).  At the end we awed at the huge model that was built of Hogwarts for all the exterior shots of the castle.  The model was huge, and so detailed that it really looks like a castle.  

We decided to drive into London and drop our luggage off at our apartment and then Eric and Stewart took the car out to the airport to return it.  Eric was not intimidated at all driving into the big city on the wrong side of the road - but he's glad to be free from the car.  We drove over 1800 miles in the last 3 weeks in England.  

Our apartment is on a quiet, tree lined street in South Kensington.  It looks like it could be the street from Mary Poppins it's so quaint.

While Eric and Stewart were returning the car, Sydney, Charlie and I walked to the store.  I wonder if my kids are sick of grocery shopping with me and then carrying all the groceries home.  

Tonight, we decided to take the tube into the city and see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and ride the London Eye - a huge enclosed Ferris Wheel that takes 30 minutes to rotate, but offers spectacular views of the city.