London picspam! [part 1: WB Harry Potter Studios]

[beelikej]

A couple of weeks ago tanisafan and I went to London for some theatre, shopping and a trip to the WB Harry Potter Studios. Which turned out to be an even bigger adventure than we had anticipated... On Thursday May 9 I traveled to Antwerp where I met up with T. on the platform of the train to Brussels. There we got on the Eurostar. In London we left our luggage in our hotelroom before heading off straight away to catch the Tube to a theatre on the edge of town for a lucious performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. On Friday May 10 we went to the WB studios. Behind the cut the whole story in pictures (with a tiny bit of commentary too;)


Thursday, May 9

Rotterdam trainstation (love the shadow lines that come through the glass ceiling) + London St.Pancras station (cool cloud sculptures!)


Beautiful Richmond Theatre: the Rocky Horror Picture Show was a true experience with lots of dressed up people in the audience.

Friday, May 10
Took the train to Watford Junction, where we only had to wait a couple of minutes for the bus to the WB Harry Potter Studios! I'm gonna take you on the tour without comments; scroll down in your own time (that's how we walked through;)

































Lock to Chamber of Secrets - Cart to Gringots' safe










Black family tapestry, background of one of my favorite scenes (Order of the Phoenix) Can you see Sirius' scorched portrait?


After a final look at the newspaper cabinet, we arrived at the backlot of the studios where we sat down for a hot dog and Butterbeer:)



And this is when the battery of my camera died. I tried turning it off/on and I managed one more picture:


Surprise Thestral!

So I couldn't take any pictures in my favorite room with all the special effects/make up. To tell you about the rest of our day we continue our tour in Diagon Alley with photos made by tanisafan (Thank you!) As it turns out my camera dying was not the worst thing that happened to me this afternoon...


Accidently Tan captured me on camera when my camera fell out of the breastpocket of my coat (don't ask) and I reached out for it in a reflex, overstretching my right arm and in the process violently straining my already injured shoulder. It felt like my arm was being ripped off.

We asked a member of staff for an icepack, she called for an ER person, who took us behind the scenes for further assistence. It's a bit of a blur for me what happened next. Everybody was really nice, I got loads of icepacks, there was a discussion with a paramedic. Because I was in a lot of pain and my fingers were tingly, I was taken to the hospital by ambulance (a first for both T and me!). There I was -finally- given painkillers before being sent to A&E (Accident & Emergency) Two doctors checked my shoulder before putting my arm in a custom made sling and the advice to see a doctor and physical therapist as soon as I got home.
We decided to take a taxi back to the studios to see if we could get back in to at least get some souvenirs (and maybe see the rest of the tour...)


T. managed to sneakily take a photo inside A&E and outside of the building while we were waiting for our taxi. Even though the tour entrance was closed now, the very kind staff let us back in and guided us (behind the scenes again!) to the backlot from where we could continue our tour. With less people around we had to make some new photos (don't worry, I won't share them all;)


Look at me! I'm Harry! :-D [gif of sassy Harry Potter by hannibal tumbleh]


Us being crazy fangirls in front of the Hogwarts castle and me in awe at the thousands of wands from Olivander's store.


We bought ALL THE THINGS in the Harry Potter shop. Okay, almost all the things (not the sorting hats, even though we look marvelous;)

IT WAS AWESOME :-)

Apologies for the random lay-out of the photos; I still can't type for long so coding was a struggle. To check out the original size image just right click and view.

Comments

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

That looks like it was an awesome experience!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

It was! After reading the books & watching the films many times this was the best Harry Potter fangirling experience:)

[eledhwenlin]

*snuggles*

That looks so amazing. :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

*huggles* It was so good; a must for Potter fans (even if that shop at the end is very dangerous for wallets;)

[sillie]

That tour looks so awesome. Glad that you had fun (even with the not-so-fun trip to the ER). :D

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

If the books were cake, then the films were the icing and this tour was the cherry on top! So good. Obviously I wasn't too happy with the emergency when it happened (and I felt guilty as hell for interupting our tour), but in the end it got us a special look behind the scenes and a chance to see our favorite part of the studio a second time, so all's well that ends well;)

[meesasometimes.livejournal.com]

WOW! That looked amazing...I had no idea of an existence of such a place, but of course. I got alittle tingly at Olivader's....cameras are the bane of my existence, and apparently yours as well, evil little thing damaging your shoulder like that :P

I used to do Rocky Horror EVERY Sat night as a teenager, I'm super jealous, I hardly ever see it around anymore.

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

Olivander is one of my favorite magic shops and to see the actual wands was overwhelming. So cool.

I was introduced to Rocky Horror on my first trip to America (in 1988), where a group of friends told me they watched it on TV every Fridaynight!! They showed me the film and taught me the TimeWarp \o/ To finally see it on a stage was awesome:)