The high-speed train from Edinburgh to London’s Kings Cross station was uneventful and put us at our hotel by late afternoon, which meant we’d begin our city exploration the following day. In the meantime, we found a gastropub called The Lord Nelson in the Southwark neighborhood near our hotel.
On our journeys, we hope for favorable luck while girding ourselves for the inevitable bad experience; and when traveling abroad where customs and cues are subtle or mysterious, we’ve gotten into a mode of expecting the worst. But here we found good fortune. First, the guys working at The Lord Nelson were super nice and helpful. Second, the burgers and fish & chips were all great with an interesting American edge (I only say “American” because it reminded us of things in the States). Plus the interior of the place was eclectic and irreverent to the extreme – it felt like a man cave for a grown-up skateboarder, in a good way. Wall art, stickers, posters and pictures all created a cool vibe orthogonal to the traditional neighborhood pub. For our friends back on the Peninsula, think The Dutch Goose reimagined by Terry Gilliam and you’ll have a good mental image.
TRAIPSING ABOUT LONDON ON A GREY DAY
We headed across town toward the London Eye without a map or GPS. Fortunately it was easy to just keep walking toward the giant Ferris wheel rotating at a snail’s pace above the south bank of central London.
Once there, we expected long lines (ahem, queues), but within a half hour of arriving, we were in one of the 32 “eggs” rising 450 feet up above the brown waters of the Thames. The ride is rather peaceful and our ovoidal passenger capsule wasn’t entirely full, so there was plenty of room to walk about, snap pictures and take in the view. We were again lucky with the weather – the high grey clouds didn’t impinge the view and because the sun wasn’t out, the pod didn’t get hot. Touristy? Yes. But we enjoyed it – especially Asher who had been talking about it for weeks before our visit.
We traipsed across Westminster Bridge under the great bell clock of Big Ben, passed by the sacred Westminster Abby and through Piccadilly Circus on our way to a SOHO camera repair shop to fix my zoom lens. Along the way we fought throngs of people and tried to distract the boys from the occasional peep shows and sex shops. We couldn’t get my camera fixed in time but the walk made for an interesting afternoon. We then headed over to the Tower of London to see the memorial entitled, “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red.” It is an evolving installation of hundreds of thousands of ceramic red poppies – each representing a British military death during WWI – placed by volunteers into the moat of the famous medieval castle. It was dramatic and shockingly beautiful.
The return to our hotel meant crossing the Tower Bridge. Its Victorian detailing irresistibly draws your eyes up as you cross the river. Fortunately we got to see it in action as the draw bridge silently raised its massive decks to allow a cargo ship to pass through. Back at the hotel, hot and tired, we happily found an Indian restaurant close by for dinner. You know what they say, when in London…
HOGWARTS SCHOOL IS REAL
We had planned a surprise visit for the boys to The Making of Harry Potter Tour at the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesden. Both boys are huge HP fans, and Angela and I also are familiar with the books and movies (I read the series aloud to each boy).
BOYS: Why are we getting up so early today?
MOM: To see a really cool castle just outside London.
BOYS (long pause): Another castle??
The hook almost got pulled free when a security guard at the train turnstiles told us, “the Harry Potter train is leaving from platform 5 in two minutes.” But the boys, distracted by rushing for the train, were tuned out and didn’t hear him. All was smooth from Euston Station to Watford in Leavesden, and we revealed the plan when the garishly decorated shuttle bus arrived to take us to the studio (plus it was hard to wait any longer as every other passenger was in some form of fangear).
Along the top walls of the studio entrance are enormous headshots of the principle actors in character, and the queue loops visitors by the closet under the stairs. Many of the places in the studio are “hot sets,” in that they are set and lit exactly as they were for the movies. There were so many high-value, original pieces on exhibition that it is impossible to describe. The overall impact was that while the cast brought the story to life, it was the behind-the-scenes crew that made the world a reality. Everything from the books used in the classrooms to the wands in their boxes, newspapers, posters, beakers and jars, labels and candles, machines and horcruxes involved an exquisite level of detail and made us want to watch the movies again. Any HP fan really should try to visit this place. One of my favorite things we’ve done* and the boys certainly loved it too.
Back in London we grabbed an early dinner before retiring for the night. The next morning, we’d head to Paris via train.
* The Harry Potter tour was incredible and they did a fantastic job tying story elements into the experience, with one exception. The Butterbeer looked delicious but tasted truly awful – it was some combination of crème soda with a chemical/foam head added afterward. Gross.
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Thank you for sharing all your wonderful stories. We are really enjoying them. Stay safe!!!
The Makris clan