A train ride, A Tour and A Rather Big Surprise.

A few weeks after my birthday, my wonderful friend Sarah popped down to London for a visit, and to make a pilgrimage of sorts. For anyone who is even remotely a fan of the Harry Potter Movie Franchise, a trip to the Warner Brother Studios where Harry Potter was shot is something of a religious experience. For a mere thirty pounds, you too can grace the hallowed halls of Hogwarts (sort of), walk the same floors as the actors *gasp*, and spend hours indulging your inner Harry Potter nerd *faints*.  I'm fairly sure seeing me (and my luxurious air mattress accommodation) was just a small bonus in Sarah's trip.

Our journey to said hallowed halls began at the slightly-less-glamorous-than-kings-cross train station of West Brompton. Our train arrived, and off to Hogwarts we went. Warner Brothers run a handy bus service between the Watford Junction Station and it's studios, so we jumped aboard and anxiously awaited our arrival to the place where the magic happens. As we went in winter, we were lucky enough to witness the set dressed up in all it's Christmas magic.

As we made our way inside and to the queue, I thought I heard someone call my name. Ignoring my small bout of craziness, I kept walking. Sure enough, I heard the call again and turned around, only to see Sarah's whole family standing behind me *actually faints*. Sarah is a fellow antipodean, and had been living in the U.K for a year and hadn't seen her parents or her brother since she left. Que happy, shocked and confused family reunion. It turns out that Sarah's mum had done some super sleuthy investigation skills and had booked tickets for the same tour of the studio that we were on. Shell shocked, we were ushered through the line and into the start of the tour. Now I won't disclose exactly how the tour begins (don't want to ruin the magic) but it's pretty cool. We finally made it onto the set and bombarded Sarah's family with questions about their trip. After our curiosity was sated and our shell shock slightly warn, we settled into wonderful task of exploring a warehouse stuffed with sets, props and costumes collected from all of the movies.

We wondered the great hall, presided over by Dumbledore himself (sort of).

Popped into the burrow to have a cuppa with Mrs Weasely.

and braved potions with Professor Snape.

Although we were summoned into the Headmasters office due to our misappropriation of potions ingredients...

The sets were stacked with more props than I could possibly photograph, and the experience really made me realise just how much work goes into making a movie. Every prop you came across had it's own little story; about how someone had found it in a market, spent hours researching it, or days photographing kittens (to decorate professor Umbridge's office!). The amount of time, effort and pride put into every tiny detail is very evident.

The door to the chamber of secrets:

A quick glance at Umbridge's office.

We considered hopping aboard the knight bus, but decided that we'd stick with the tube.

The gorgeous Sarah (looking a bit intimidated, probably due to my directions of: "LOOK LIKE YOU'RE HAVING FUN!" - we were, I promise!)

Dawn French is one of my favourite actresses/comedians, so I had to share a snap of her wand box!

The Hogwarts castle in all it's miniature glory.

We finished the tour with some well earned butter beer, and a good peruse of the gift shop - chocolate frogs all around. It was a wonderful day made even more special by the massive surprise of Sarah's family, and we headed off into the evening for a proper catch up.