My European Exposure: Harry Potter Studios Tour

Remember way back when I used to fairly regularly post about our travels here in Europe? Yeah, so do I...vaguely. To say the past few months have been busy would be an understatement. Thankfully the new year has brought with it more free time, and I'm determined to get caught up on blogging our travels. So let's pick up where we last left off. London!!

We were fortunate enough to get tickets to see Harry Potter and The Cursed Child while we were in London. Our kids are huge Harry Potter fans, as they've grown up with the books and movies. In turn, Don and I have learned to love all things Harry Potter as well. This play did not disappoint. It was very long, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

Continuing with our Harry Potter adventures, one of the most fun experiences we had in the UK was a visit to Warner Bros. Studio Tour of The Making of Harry Potter. I can honestly say that I think I would have enjoyed this experience even if I weren't a fan. Seeing all the thousands and thousands of props, costumes, animatronics, etc. that made up this series of movies and thinking about how it all came together was fascinating. If you're a Harry Potter fan, then you're going to know what all of these pictures are, and if you're not a fan, then you probably don't care...lol!

After standing in line, then being herded into a "theater," we found ourselves right in front of the doors to the Great Hall! (Note to anyone who may be planning to visit - when you make your way into the holding room, try to stand all the way against the left hand wall. If you do this, you will be on the front row of the "theater", and hundreds of other people won't be blocking your view. Unfortunately, we were on the back row.)

Laurel has dreamed of doing this since she was about 8 years old!!

The last and most beautiful exhibition on the tour is a 1:24 scale model of Hogwarts, with lighting that changes every few minutes to give daytime and nighttime effects to the castle. It was stunning!