Harry Potter

 Let me start this post off by saying the pictures from today do not do this place justice!  We went to Warner Bros. today to see where Harry Potter was filmed.  Nate and I purposefully put this at the end of our trip because we knew that nothing could top this for the fellas!

 I have not seen a setup this good besides Disney.  They did a great job of making sure you had plenty of time to see everything and they spread the crowd out really well.  

Above is a picture of the Great Hall.  

 They had actual costumes and props from the movies.  Here is Harry's costume in various stages of wear throughout the movie.  They also had all the wigs to look at.   

 Gryffindor bedroom.  You can see Harry's bed and Ron's bed.

 Invisibility Cloak

 Dumbledore's office was amazing.  We stood there for about five minutes and still didn't catch all the details they had in the room.  

 In fact, Nate caught the sorting hat at the last minute.

 Wand lesson

 The Weasley's Burrough

 I was sooo hoping that we would be able to try Butterbeer!  It was great!

 The Knight Bus

 Ron's flying car

 #4 Privet Drive 

 Hogwart's Bridge

 The special effects were amazing.  They did a great job of showing you how they did certain effects.  The costumes and masks were so detailed.  We couldn't believe that they kept so much for display.

 My Diagon Alley pictures definitely didn't do it justice.  It was so cool!  Here is Ollivander's.

At the very end, they showed up a scaled model of Hogwarts that was used during all the movies.  

It was breathtaking!  All in all, we spent a quick four hours here. 

 It flew by!  We had so much fun!  

I think the boys will be talking about this place for a long time!

London Day Five

 After the British Museum, we headed to Kings Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4.  

 We had some lunch at the station and then decided to cross a few more things off our list.  

Ethan and Lincoln spotted this Lego Tube map in the station.  

 London Eye

 Jubilee Park

 After playing in the hot sun, Lincoln asked for a reading break.

 10 Downing Street

The inside of the Australian House is where Gringott's (from HP) was filmed.

 Royal House of Justice

 Twinnings of London for a cup of tea.  

 We stocked up on our decaf tea!

 Picadilly Circus

 Fortnum and Mason

Finally, Benihanas for dinner.

 Our chef was crazy!  He picked on the boys and they loved it!  He actually got Ethan to eat onions!

We were shocked that he let the boys cook the bean sprouts.  They loved it!

Tomorrow is the day they have been waiting for all week!  HARRY POTTER!

British Museum

 British Museum was at the top of our list today.

 We saw the Rosetta Stone as soon as we walked in.

 Marilyn and I were here 13 years ago and we were so exhausted on our British Museum day. All I remember was us doing silly pictures.  So, Ethan and Lincoln helped me recreate some!

 I definitely don't remember most of the museum items being hundreds of years BC.  

 This column was from 415 BC.

 This is from the Parthenon.  

It is actually sad that so many things from the Parthenon are in this museum.

 Also from the Parthenon.  

 Easter Island Statue.

 Ethan being chased by a snake. 

 Ethan was excited to see so many mummies!

Lincoln wanted to see the pirate treasure!

Lincoln found a gold pirate ship on the map and he was on a mission to find it!  

It turns out it was a clock.  

We had fun at the British Museum, but everyone agreed we still like the Louvre the best!

England Tour Day

 We went on a crazy long tour of England today. 

We woke up at 5:30 to get to our station for our tour.  First stop was Windsor Castle.  

Lincoln loves seeing the Royal Guards. 

 Our tour guide gave us a quick tour of the outside of the castle and then we (aka the boys) enjoyed an audio tour of the state rooms.  They told us more than once that we needed to slow down because they hadn't finished their section of the audio tour. 

We hopped on the bus and headed to Stonehenge!  

 

We had a quick 50 minutes to stop and take pictures.  

Tonight, Ethan told us we could have skipped this one!  Crazy boy!

 We had a few minutes to spare so the boys read their books while Nate and I stared at something that was over 5000 years old.  They did not get the magnitude of where we were!  

They were very excited to stop for lunch at 3:00 pm, and so was everyone else on the bus!

We had a pub lunch of fish and chips in Lacock!

 

This was the house of Harry Potter when he lived with his parents.  

 Our last stop was Bath.  Today the temperature reached over 90 degrees and I needed a bath!  

 Maybe not in this green boiling water though.

 Our tour guide, Hugh, was great!  While we were walking the streets of Bath, the fellas ran up to chat with him about school.  He had boys that were 6 and 8, as well.  We jumped back on the bus (coach in England) and left about 6:00.  We didn't arrive back at the hotel until 9:00.  

It was a long day, but super fun!