I’ve been waiting for this day in about 16 years. I was 9-10 when I first read Harry Potter and I was 25 when I stepped foot inside Hogwarts.
A friend of my parents who is a librarian saw that the kids at her library seem to like this series so she picked up the 3 books and lend them to me. I still remember reading the first chapter and not thinking too much of it. Like what’s with that guy and his drills, amiright amiright?…anyhow, I picked up the book a little later and kept going after that first chapter and fell in love, completely and head over heels. It’s since THAT moment that I’ve been waiting for my Hogwarts letter. Though it never truly came (though I did receive a letter courtesy of a favourite penguin of mine) I fully and truly appreciated the moment that I arrived where they filmed that extraordinary series and where all those memories of my childhood’s favourite read came to life.
I was about to head there by myself when the weekend before I was to head to London a friend from my Masters wrote to ask if she could come along. Hm yes of course! So I met up with her and her fiance at the Watford Junction train station on that Friday afternoon. We got on the Harry Potter bus feeling way too excited – she and I were both going slightly crazy and her fiance was slightly perplexed, but hey why not go crazy in a moment like this, right?
When we arrived at the studios it was every Potterhead’s dream, people ran in every direction to take photos and selfies with the signs and decor…and that was before even going in!
We went in and there was no big queue, it went so smoothly. They bring you into a mini theatre and then present this super cute video – to be honest I don’t want to tell you what happens. If you’ve never been, you’ll want the surprise! And if you’ve been, you’ll know what I’m talking about – it was possibly my favourite moment of it all! I had sooo many emotions!
Please excuse the photo dump – but here are some of my favourite photos and moments of the tour!
The effort they put in the details that sometimes didn’t even appear on screen was so impressive!
A and I might or might not have gone to try out the Quidditch…. so that’s the problem of having a friend along, we totally hyped ourselves up and decided to try the broom against green screen. It seemed so ridiculous – but we HAD to do it! There was us and the children. But it was so cool…and we might or might not have bought photos…
A and I being dorks as always…
Too soon…
There were seriously so many emotions had that afternoon. I ended up staying for about 4 hours and only leaving because I wanted to get back to London to catch dinner with a friend, but I could have stayed longer!
I think one of the surprising thing about this visit was that despite having seen the photos of so many bloggers who had gone before me, I was still happily surprised and excited at all the details I noticed! The experience was not a cheap one, it was truly expensive, but it was worth it! I would definitely go again – and in fact I will for sure!
Have you ever visited the Harry Potter studios?
What was/would be your favourite part?xx
