Friday, July 15, 2011

Pottermania!

Five minutes to the train from our site in Abbeywood...not particularly nice area of town but not too bad. England in July... Tons of rain.

Got off at London Bridge took three steps into the rain and changed our plan of action. The three umbrellas we bought in Salzburg weren't cutting the mustard.

Our Harry Potter fans wanted to go to Kings Cross station which was probably a pretty dry trip so we went back to the to trains.

We all went through the wall at platform 9 3/4! Mary was the only one who remembered her luggage.











By the time we found our hotel and ate lunch the rain had stopped. We headed up the street to Buckingham Palace...




then hit the road for Trafalgar Square. This was our true destination.

We had been planning since March to have the kids in Trafalgar Square on July 7th since we read that the Harry Potter Premier of the 8th and final movie would be in Leicester Square (movie capital of England) and the entire cast would be walking the red carpet from Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square. What we DIDN'T know was that you had to get your wristbands the day prior at 10 am and the ENTIRE event was blocked by 8 foot barricades. I swear this story DOES have a happy ending.........

As we approached Trafalgar the crowd started roaring and silver Mercedes Benz after silver Mercedes Benz swooped into the square clearly carrying the people we hoped to glimpse (the silver Mercedes' are important as you will soon read)





We sniffed out every nook and cranny around the area and found the back door of the theater which held some promise as the door occasionally opened and we could see the screen and some high falutin' VIPs. We staked out a cool pub next to the back door....





and nursed a few pints for two hours. We sort of gave up, the kids were very sad, although Jimmy did sit on my shoulders and snap a blurry photo of Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) over the 8 foot barricade before an especially alert London Bobby put an end to that nonsense. I expect she will earn some type of award for her courage and diligence.

We gave up our spot at the pub and headed to Piccadilly Square and shopped. At around 9:25 pm Jimmy begged for ONE LAST TRY as the movie premier was ending soon and we might catch them coming out. Well, guess what......we walked back to Trafalgar and started heading to Leicester Square when we spotted some barricades up a small street and decided to investigate. We asked a Bobby what they were for and he gave us some line about dismantling them soon but we didn't believe him and continued up the street....and spotted....a long line of silver Mercedes Benz's! We positioned ourselves right next to them (we were almost the only ones there at first but the crowd started growing). A roar erupted and down the street came, one by one, Neville Longbottom, followed by Snape, Professor Slughorn, Fred and George Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, and Professor Sprout. We waited a little longer and here comes Emma Watson (Hermione) who curtsied to the crowd, then Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), and finally, JK Rowling herself. They were 15 feet away waving to the crowd, shaking the occasional hand and signing a few autographs. Apparently they snuck Daniel Radcliffe out the aforementioned back door but we ended up in a great spot to see everyone else. We have video and pictures...video might be posted later after we edit it down.










Let me just say the kids hit the motherload. They were SO excited to see the characters from Harry Potter on the night of the World Premier.

Spent the night at hotel called The Belgrade House and fell asleep exhausted after 13 hours of trudging through London but satisfied at the results!

A few more pictures of London:









- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad 2

Location:London, England

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