Visiting 'Harry Potter's London'

You may remember last week I said I was going to be expanding on a certain walking tour we took in London. Well, major *NERD ALERT*, because I'm here today to talk about the magic that was Harry Potter's London. One of the tours offered by the big bus company was a Harry Potter film locations tour. It was pretty awesome-even for the Muggles amongst us. After taking a boat tour to the Tower of London on Tuesday, we bussed ourselves back across town to Trafalgar Square where we met with our tour guide.

The first place we went along the walking tour was the movie theater Harry, Ron, and Hermione walk past after they escape the Death Eaters in a cafe in The Deathly Hallows, Part 1. It really is quite a cool thing to experience being in the same locations as some of your favorite movie heroes. Just look at Jill's face (who wasn't a huge Harry Potter fan at the start). Also, the city of London might consider a new electrician...How long ago was this movie filmed and the lights are still out!

We walked through the Leicester Square, where all the Harry Potter movies had their red carpet premieres, and head to an authentic British candy store. As the basis for Honeydukes-the kids of the wizarding world's favorite place for sweets-the tour took us in to Hardys Sweet Shop. The shop employees were nice enough to explain how the sweets they carried correlated to the movies, and we got to sample some of Dumbledore's favorite candies.

 Some of the other stops on the tour included the Amnesty International building where JK Rowling worked as a researcher and the building that was used as the Ministry of Magic in the films.

(Top) Outside the Ministry of Defense (the Ministry of Magic in the movies)
(Bottom) Harry and friends take polyjuice potion outside this door before entering the Ministry

If you watch The Deathly Hallows, you'll see these two locations

(Top) Ron keeps watch outside the ministry on this corner. (Bottom) The "inspiration" for Diagon Alley

The tour was fantastic, because at each location, the guide would explain what we were looking at and then explain the scene in the movie. She would even show a movie still to give you the visual reminder (or first look if you were like Josh). I have to admit that I was pretty excited the whole time, but then I'd look at K and her eyes would be huge! Greatest payoff ever. 

On each of the girls' birthdays, we let them choose one thing that they wanted to do in addition to something that we chose to do. Although little J's birthday came first in the week, I am skipping to explaining K's day because it fits the feel of this post more. (I promise to expand on little J's day later, though!) As her choice, K wanted to spend her day shopping. So we did. We went to Hamley's world famous toy store. We had planned to do more shopping that day, but that store ended up taking about THREE HOURS. I think if I was a kid, it would be amazing. But as a parent-conscious of the exchange rate from dollar to pound-it gave me hives. London as a whole was expensive, but I feel like they really jacked up the prices in the toy store. How many parents were going in and buying their kids some really neat toy just to say they got something in London? (Shamefully raising my hand) In my defense, I made them keep it to about 5 GBP. I know, I know....softie.

AN-Y-WAY... after leaving the toy store, we realized we didn't have that much time before we had to get on to K's surprise event. We hopped on the tube and headed to Kings Cross Station and the infamous Platform 9 3/4. It's actually quite cute the way they have it set up. There's the normal signs pointing you in the direction of platforms 9 and 10, but as you walk towards them, off to the side is the platform every young wizard takes to Hogwarts. It's an adorable little trolley half embedded in the wall, complete with Hedwig the Owl. There's even a photographer set up with the four house scarves ready and waiting. Of course, they both chose Gryffindor. For a small fee, you can purchase the photo taken by the professional in the Platform 9 3/4 shop. But, they are understanding and let you pose for your own camera if you'd like. Naturally they're out to make money, but they aren't forcing you to exclusively purchase from them, like some places. I truly appreciate that.

After posing for pictures, perusing the shops, and picking up our super cool Platform 9 3/4 train tickets, we sat down for lunch/early dinner in the train station. After dinner, we boarded the Hogwarts Express (or the overground train to Watford Junction). It was about an hour ride outside of London on a very packed train. That's okay...we made like the locals and sat in the aisles. Once you leave the station at Watford Junction, there are signs everywhere telling you how to go about catching the shuttle to Harry Potter Studios, which was K's surprise from us. Both girls were excited to go, actually, even though Little J isn't a huge HP fan.

When you first enter the building, you are greeted by huge portraits of the actors in character. You get to see them in their first year and in their seventh. It really gets you excited to enter the tour. Once you enter, you're shown a short video, where the actors tell you a little about what you're about to see.  A tour guide tells you the do's and don't of the tour area. What you see inside are real movie sets-not replicas. There are costumes actually worn by the characters and props seen throughout the various movies. They don't want any touching and breaking or chewed up gum on these precious pieces of cinematic history. After the tour guide finished her spiel, she asked if anyone was celebrating a birthday that day. K got so excited, raised her hand, and scooted her way up front. The tour guide said, "as you would hear around your eleventh birthday in the wizarding world, 'Welcome to Hogwarts'." And with that, she and a very excited, newly eleven year old K, pushed open the doors to The Great Hall. And really from here, it's all a blur. I was so caught up in the excitement of Hogwarts that I can only show you pictures from here.

I know we saw clothing, wigs and accessories worn by all the actors. We got incredibly close to Hedwig the Owl-the real one! We saw a lady whose contribution to the movies was to hand feather the animatronic birds, like Fawkes the Phoenix. We strolled Diagon Alley and Privet Drive. We saw the concept art for so many of the places and creatures in the films. We rode broomsticks and flew cars. We posed for pictures on the very same covered bridge that was destroyed in the Battle of Hogwarts. And I for one got a little misty eyed as we passed through the room hosting the model of Hogwarts. Plus, there were so many little things about the movies we learned that we could never have known without this visit, and I'm so glad we did. We spent hours soaking up as much of this magic as we could and it still feels like it wasn't enough. It was a definite must for any Potterhead.

If you should ever get the chance to visit London for any amount of time, I would very highly recommend The Harry Potter Studio Tour. Who knows, you might just leave a brand new fan of the boy wizard! 

London, England-Stinson Style (Part 1)

Hello beautiful people! Did you miss me? I took the last week off from the blog to actually go out and live Our Life! And last week, we were living it up in cheery ole England-London to be precise! It was such a fun trip--the perfect mix of getting out and going and relaxation. In my opinion, you can't ask for much more from a vacation!

We started our travels early Sunday morning by heading to the Frankfurt airport for our way-too-early for my taste flight. Of course, us being us, we managed to get a little lost, but we figured it out in time to make it the recommended two hours before our flight. (Who really does that?!). Once we made it to the airport, we went straight to our gate. Traveling with the kids provided one perk. We got to skip "the line" through security. I'm quite certain the family line was longer than the regular line. Plus, little J and I had the pleasure of an early morning frisk. After all was said and done, we had a little time to rest before we boarded. All three kids did fantastic on the flight, and it wasn't long before we had touched down, albeit a little roughly, at Heathrow. Since it was only about nine in the morning we took the train into Ealing, where our hotel was, and dropped our bags. Then we did some walking around looking for lunch and exploring the area around our hotel. When it was time to check in, we all ended up taking a well deserved nap.

After nap, we took the tube in to the center of London to do some site seeing. We took the stop at Victoria station which is very near to Buckingham Palace. So naturally, that's where we headed. Coming from the States, where the White House is locked down so tight and there are snipers positioned on the roof, it was interesting to me that you could walk right up to the front gates of the Palace. So we did! We walked around the palace a bit, then strolled through St. James's Park towards Admirality Arch and Trafalgar Square. It wasn't crowded on the streets, which was surprising given how popular these touristy places are. We even managed to continue our McDonalds world tour, dining on Whitehall, just down from St. James's Palace.  Day one always seems like everything is so spread out and it's such a long walk to get from one thing to the next (especially when your go-to shoes decided to be a bust), but in reality -and knowing what I do now- we were so close to all we wanted to see most of the time. After dinner, we went back to the hotel to rest for our bus tour the next day. 

I know I've said it before, but let me say it again. I love the big bus tours! If you have a chance to take one, do it! It's so worth it in my opinion. Especially those with the live guides. We learn so much from them that we would probably otherwise never know. We had a few different guides throughout the two day tour, and learned something different from each one. For instance, did you know the phrase "one for the road" originated in London? During the 1500 and 1600's when the Tyburn Tree was seeing a lot of traffic (hangings), those who were to be hanged rode in carriages down Tyburn Road (now the busy Oxford Street). Onlookers, feeling some compassion, would slip them a drink-usually alcoholic in nature-through the bars on the carriage, giving them "one for Tyburn road" or...one for the road. Pretty cool, right? Not the hanging part, just the origination of the saying. So we learned a lot of cool things like that-things I never knew I didn't know. Well, on our bus tour we did get to see all the top sights, experienced authentic English weather (rainy and chilly), and we got to see the Queen's car and motorcade roll past. Her Majesty was busy entertaining the Irish president at Windsor Castle, so she wasn't at Buckingham, but for whatever reason her car was driving around. Maybe getting a wash and wax? Day one of our bus tour ticket was spent mostly riding around for hours picking up tidbits of knowledge from the bus tour operators. We called it an early night just about every night of our trip. 

Tuesday we started our bus tour at Buckingham again, and rode until we got to the Houses of Parliament and Westminster. We did our photo ops in front of Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben to us nonLondoners). Then, since it was a pretty clear day and our tickets included all boat tours and walking tours, we decided to take the boat to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Our plan was to actually go in The Tower of London, but the boat kind of took forever and we had a very important walking tour to get back to on the other side of the city.  So, we bussed our tails back across the city for a two hour walking tour. Totally worth it, though! (More on that in a later post, though) 

After our tour, we had to get on another bus to try and get to Kings Cross Station, but that bus sort of never came. At least not in the 35 minutes we stood waiting for it. The only negative I have about the whole tour experience! Since we were in a part of town we hadn't walked around yet, we decided to see what was going on. We managed to stumble upon the cute little Covent Garden Market and a Shake Shack! I know what you're probably thinking...why is she not talking about traditional British food that they ate? Oh, because we didn't. We knew going into this trip that it wasn't something that we were overly keen on trying, so we didn't break our necks (or the bank) trying to get to a pub to eat fish and chips or bangers and mash. London is expensive! Even Mcdonalds cost us about £25!! (Go ahead...google the conversion. I'll wait.) See? Expensive! At some point, you kind of stop thinking in terms of the dollar, or you'll cry every time you pay for something. That's what happened with us and the Euro in Germany, too. 

Well, London was a five day trip, and it seems like the summary posts may just take that long as well! So, for now I'll leave you with some pictures from the trip(In no particular order-taken throughout the week)and we'll pick this up soon. 

To say I was obsessed with Big Ben, would probably be an understatement

Can't you just imagine Peter Pan flying past with the Darling kids?

Did you see the Lego Duke and Dutchess? Yes...Awesome.

A few from the flight. The clouds were mesmerizing. 

Have you ever been to London? Is it on your must see list? Do you know what Bangers and Mash are? (I don't!) 

Five For Friday: April 4

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all have enjoyed your week so far. What great things have happened in your life this week? Monday I challenged fans of our Facebook page to take the time each day to jot down at least one good thing from everyday. Were you able to do it? If you didn't get to try it, I challenge you to start now! It will change the way you see the day and life in general.

• This is the very last you'll hear of cheer for the season, I promise. It's all over and we had our competition. The girls did so, so well! The organizers decided they weren't going to give out any medals (the morning of the competition), so we didn't 'win'. But if I had to guess, they would've gotten a first place medal. It was that good. They went out and funneled all their nerves and jitters into their moves, just like true performers. When they finished they said, "that's it? We're done?? Can we go again?!" They were so excited and it was really satisfying as a coach to see them so happy! We also had our banquet this week, and it was so much fun celebrating an amazing season with the girls and their families, and having them say that they had fun with us this year. Plus I got a really cool mug that says "KEEP CALM AND CHEER ON".  I think I will.

• There has been no shortage of great moments from my kids this week. Especially PJ, whose language skills are pretty killer at this point. It's not so much that he can speak so well, it's more the number of words he knows and can use in context. Plus, he has a certain comedic timing a two year shouldn't have.  If we're friends on Facebook, you've probably gotten annoyed at some point this week by my posts, because I just keep posting some of the funny things he says. He told me he was going to England to ride a train! Ah kids... The girls have also been spending a lot of time with a friend they've made through the cheer squad. I love seeing that they aren't as socially awkward as I imagine, and that they really are great kids. They're super polite in comparison to some of their peers, and that means we've done something right. Yay us! Moral of the story--give your kids more credit, they probably deserve it. And give yourself more credit--you deserve it too!

• Beautiful spring weather has meant time outside watching softball, playing in the yard, and gardening. Peyton and I ventured downtown this week to pick up some "necessities" for our trip. When we came up from the parking garage, I was reminded it was the day of the Farmer's Market-Wiesbaden does one every Wednesday and Saturday mornings. It was so nice outside and we just strolled through the market checking out all the local produce and flowers and goodies. We even sipped on my favorite smoothie from my favorite smoothie cart. I think I'm getting better at ordering things in German, too. Life is good! 

• I have newly discovered another craft store downtown. Much to the dissatisfaction of my husband and my wallet. It's pretty close to what I could get back in the States as far as what they stock. Nothing close to Michael's of Joann Fabric, but it will do. If you remember, I'm trying to do a lot more 'buy local' stuff, so this definitely helps. (Or hurts depending on your viewpoint) I've also joined a group of crafters that are obsessive planner users like me. It's nice to be 'around' like minded people. They get it, ya know? They even hooked me up with loads of places to find organizational goodies while we're in London. I was able to pack my bag a little lighter knowing it may be filled with goodness on the way back! 

• I've had a big task list this week, including prep for the girls' party on the 12th-the day after we get back from London. I've been making gift bags and banners and the party place is already decorated. It turned out really great that they chose a Frozen theme, because I was able to 'shop' our Christmas decorations for things to use. I picked up a few things from the store, but mostly just used what we had. I love those types of parties! I've also gotten fancy dresses for the girls to have tea at Kensington Palace when we're in London. One more thing to do: make a Harry Potter style acceptance letter to Hogwarts, and a royal invite to tea to give each of them on their birthdays. I love that they have no idea what we're doing! Surprises almost never happen in our house--some of us can't keep a secret! 

• BONUS goodness: Two beautiful baby girls celebrated their very first birthdays this week! We have a new baby cousin, and my dear, amazing friend (whom I miss so much!) welcomed her a new addition to her family!! Welcome to the world beauties! 

Randoms from the week. Can we talk about the ChocStars for a minute?! How funny are they!?

So now, we are headed to the Wiesbaden Easter Market to check out all the wonderful handcrafted Easter things they have. Then early Sunday morning which will still be late Saturday evening for those of you in the US), we'll be dashing off to LONDON! 

If you have a post similar to this, I'd love for you to link it in the comments! I like to read positive thoughts, especially by other mommy bloggers out there! 

Throwback Thursday: Rhein River Cruise

Happy Throwback Thursday, everyone! I think we are nearing the end of the 'throwback' posts--I am almost caught up with all our big trips and adventures we've taken in the year before this blog got going. I am actually getting everything ready for a BIG upcoming adventure today, but I wanted to get this one loaded. It is our Rhein River Cruise we took during the summer. We sailed from the town of Rüdesheim, which is about 30 minutes away from Wiesbaden early one Friday morning. Of course it rained on us a bit, but we took that opportunity to have lunch on board the ship. We had the option to hop on/hop off and explore the towns, but for this trip we decided to just ride to the end of the line and back. (Especially given the finicky weather!) The kids enjoyed it because there were so.many.castles! Castles here are like 7-11's in the States--there's one on every corner! (okay, so that's an exaggeration, but only kind of) The girls played a game the entire ride of claiming castles. "That's my summer castle." "That one is my weekend castle." PJ enjoyed 'driving' the ship most of the time. So, all in all, this was a nice day trip for the family and we didn't have to do too much planning or packing.

Hey Mickey!

Today is my dad's birthday!! I won't tell which one, but let's just say, there's a 'hill' involved, and he may or may not be over it!

In honor of this momentous occasion, I wanted to find some way to say, "You're the best." What better way than through song!