On Friday the 13th December I went to what can only be described as the most magical place on earth, and it wasn’t Disney World!
Every year I count down the weeks leading up to christmas and mark of every sunday in my calendar 8 weeks prior as ‘HP’, all in preparation of pulling out the Harry Potter Wizards Collection and losing myself in the magical tale that I grew up loving. I may be 24 but the child in me is still lost in these stories. The first time I heard Harry Potter it was read to my primary school class, we would gather on the carpet every Friday afternoon while Mrs Pike read us another chapter, theres no mistaking that I was hooked!
I was one of those children who upon the first Christmas after the release of The Philosophers Stone received an array of Harry Potter memorabilia, bath towels, bedding, torches that project harry flying on his Nimbus 2000, a mug in the shape of his head, chocolate frogs, bubble bath, the list goes on. Its safe to say I was invested in this series from the start, and possibly a very spoilt little girl that year. In September 2012 I went to Wizarding World at Universal Studios Orlando, I drank butterbeer in the baking sun and rode the hippogriff but nothing could have prepared me for The Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden. Here is a little look at what I saw while I was there!
This is me, In The Great Hall!
Here you can see the outfit that Rob Pattinson wore for the Tri-Wizard Tournament in The Goblet of Fire!
For the Hogwarts In The Snow special the Great Hall was decorated and included a festive feast alongside many Christmas trees.
This is outside Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley with the puking Pastilles guy!
One of the highlights of my visit was visiting number four privet drive, how cool is that?!
At the end of the tour is a gift shop very similar to the one at Wizarding World and it is very hard not to spend every penny you have, especially when you happen to be going on pay day!
I purchased a Luna Lovegood wand to go with my Hermione Wand, a glass and some HoneyDukes Sherbert Lemons. Which appear to have some sort of magic spell cast upon them as they are all stuck in the jar and refusing to come out! My favourite purchase has to be my scarf. I spent a while deciding which one to buy out of the Gryffindor School scarf and the Quidditch scarf, I opted for the school scarf in the end although if I had two necks I’d have been leaving with both!
I took over 200 pictures at the studio tour so if you would like to see more, I don’t think their is anything I didn’t take a picture of! You can see them in this photo album or via this link to Facebook
Here are my purchases added to the ‘Potter Shelf’ in our office.