Schoolies Day 7 - Harry and Jack

I may have mentioned it a few times already, but public transport in London is amazing.  Once you get the hang of reading the maps, it’s relatively easy to move around the city, but it’s also really important not to catch the tube too much as you miss so much being underground.

Today we took advantage of walking overground - after a spot of Harry Potter nerdom. At Warner Bros studios.  The tour, which is situated at Leavesden and requires overland train and a shuttle bus to get to, is a HP nerd’s greatest dream.  We planned about three hours to wander round, complete with audio guides to move you round the exhibits.  You know you are in for a treat when the first set you walk into is Hogwart’s Great Hall, resplendently decorated for Christmas.  It is the sheer scale of this sound stage that makes you truly appreciate the work that has gone into these 8 movies.

Throughout the tour you walk through scenes from the movie (Gryffindor common room, Dumbledores office, potions classroom, the Burrow, the Ministry of Magic, Platform 9 3/4) - and this is just a taste!  There are props and costumes from the movie on display, as well as explanations of green screen techniques, and opportunities to put yourself into a scene.

At the halfway mark there is a cafe where you can purchase butter beer and butter beer ice cream - very crafty because you can’t buy it at the end of the tour in that cafe.  It was delicious and of course we had to buy the commemorative tankards and skeins to remember our day.  Through the rest of the display and we even managed to avoid buying anything at the gift shop.  Mainly because we are heading to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios and the exchange rate is a little friendlier in the US.

Train back to Euston station and then tube to Kings Cross where we checked out the real Platform 93/4 and another gift shop before making our way to Oxford Street - what can only be described as Jordan’s shopping Mecca when she was here with me.

There is nothing quite like getting lost in London and we checked out the back street of Soho, the famous Carnaby Street with their unique Christmas lights and then home for a rest before our final stop of the day - The Jack the Ripper Tour, complete with Rippervision.  Now there are many of these tours available but I think we chose the best one.

Mike has published an evidence-based book about the Ripper and was awarded Book of the Year in 2017 at the Jack the Ripper Crime Conference (it’s a thing - check it out).  Mick’s passion was evident in every syllable he uttered and rather than conjecture and gossip, he based the tour on first hand contemporary accounts.  It was worth being out on the bitterly cold London streets of Whitechapel to hear the stories of the Ripper victims.

Did I buy his book? You bet your ass I did - and already well into it and enjoying a great read.  Then it was off home as we had a very early start on the Eurostar in the morning. Paris awaits - the forecast is for cloudy and cold which will make for great photos.