I love spending time in London during the festive period.
The city goes all out for Christmas and we’ve been visiting every year since we were kids. We’ve had so many fun memories over the years, so I thought I’d share a few of my favourite things to do. It’s likely that most of these are things you can do in every city in England, but London just has the biggest variety! Continue reading
My last post was all about the incredible Diagon Alley section of Universal Orlando, but today we’re taking the Hogwarts Express over to the Islands of Adventure park to see Hogsmeade Village and Hogwarts Castle.
If you’ve been reading for a while, then you know how much of a huge fangirl I am of Harry Potter. I have been ever since I was at school and I still am now. In fact, if anything, I love it more than ever.
It literally fills me with joy when I get to experience something that was part of the books and/or films or the inspiration behind it, so imagine how I felt getting to visit an immersive replica of Diagon Alley, complete with shops, The Leaky Cauldron and a giant fire breathing dragon.
You guys know how much I love Harry Potter and as promised I’m bringing you an updated Warner Bros. Harry Potter Studio Tour! There have been a number of new additions made since I first visited back in 2012 and I want to share those with you here.
I’ve been having a crazy month of Harry Potter bookings, so I’ve been totally in the wizarding mood to write this post this week. I’ve managed to get tickets for ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ in London next year, booked into the Harry Potter WB studio tour (again….see my original visit here) to catch up on the new additions and to see it all decked out for Christmas in December, and managed to get tickets for the ‘A History of Magic’ exhibit at the British Library that’s on from now until the end of February. This all makes me so happy.
Another fabulous Harry Potter style trip you can make in London is to the House of MinaLima. Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima are the graphic design duo MinaLima, and they are the brains and talent behind all the graphic art elements of the ‘Harry Potter’ films and the spin-off film ‘Fantastic Beasts (And Where to Find Them)’. Continue reading
I am getting very, very excited to head back to Europe for Christmas, and I’ve been researching all the places that I need to visit, all the new openings, all the events…..it’s been a fun few weeks!
In fact, all the research I’ve done on my home country has finally helped me to almost finish my recommendations for Cambridge, so that page should hopefully be up on the blog within the next month.
But before I head back home, I’ve got a visit from my parents and a trip to Arequipa to plan for, so I better hit the Internet again and decide on where in Lima I really want to show them. They’ve been a few times already so we’ve done a lot, but new favourites always pop up between visits!
But enough about what’s to come, here’s what has been going in during the month of September…
OK so here’s the deal.
I love Harry Potter. The books, the films, the whole shebang.
When I found out a couple of years ago that there was going to be a Warner Bros Harry Potter Studio Tour in London, I just had to go. So my mum, the wonderful human being that she is, took me for a surprise visit.
My trip was not long after the studio tour first opened, but that was back in 2012 before some other parts and props were brought in and added to the already vast collection (read: THE REAL HOGWARTS EXPRESS!!!). However, the overall tour is pretty much exactly the same now as it was then, so let me share my gallery of Harry Potter wonder so that you will all be extremely excited and go and visit for yourselves!
The studio tour is located right next door to where they actually filmed all of the Harry Potter films. Two soundstages and also a backlot have been filled with props, costumes and sets from the movies. From tiny items like coins from Gringotts to huge pieces such as the Dursley’s house on Privet Drive.
Now I’ve been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Florida, which is utterly amazing, but being around the props and sets that were made and designed as close to the books’ descriptions as possible is really, really awesome. Probably even better in fact.
I don’t want to rave on about every single thing in every single photo, because obviously it is all incredible, so I’ll just give a brief explanation of some of the photos and add any extra information I think might be necessary. And maybe I’ll get excited every now and again…but I’ll try and stay on topic!
Think of this as an illustrative post, rather than as a written one. After all, a picture tells a thousand words.
So hold on to your ‘portkey’ and let me transport you to the world of Harry Potter…
The Little Edition 