A magically magical Day 2

I revealed the destinations of this trip to Whitney one at a time, and the first thing that she said when she discovered that London would be our first stop was, "Are we going to the Harry Potter Studios??!"

My answer: "I already booked the tickets."

I guess you could call us Potterphiles. I mean, I did propose marriage to her by pulling a ring out of the Sorting Hat and asking her to join my House, which was followed by a Harry Potter-themed engagement party with friend dressed as characters... So yeah, we kinda like our boy HP. 

Day 2 would be the day where we'd get to be immersed in his wizarding world. 

But first, breakfast. 

We looked around our hostel for something authentic, and stumbled upon a place serving English breakfasts! Whitney wasn't thrilled about eating baked beans and sausage so early in the day, so we shared a muffin and EB. 

Then it was off to the studios! It's the actual studio where the films were...

filmed and is 20 min north of London by express train, followed by a 15 min shuttle. We booked for the first time slot and were so eager that we may have arrived 45 min early. By the time other muggles arrived, we'd eyed the competition and with pointy elbows were THE FIRST in line. No children were harmed in our road to victory. Nothing that they won't get over, anyway. 

Whitney just graduated with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy, so she got  to share the honor of opening the doors to the Great Hall! I cried a little. 

The studio tour was amazing. They had prepared sets from much of the movie that we walked through, along with behind-the-scenes information. Whitney was so enamored that she took over 100 pictures of the place. I especially enjoyed Dumbledore's office. Did you know that his many books are London phone books covered in leather?? Neither did I! 

Whitney wanted to preserve this memory, so she dropped it into the Pensieve. 

Included in their behind-the-scenes info was a display on the animal actors. Considering they filmed for over ten years, they developed close relationships with the animals. Of course I was most interested in the cats. The three cats that played Mrs. Norris were described as "very naughty," "greedy," and "very snobby."  Sounds about right.

Then I totally didn't freak out when we came to Dolores Umbridge's office/cat shrine.

In preparation for our new life in the magical world, they gave us lessons in dueling.

I flew through Platform 9 3/4. Old Voldy taught me a thing or two. 

And Whitney and I decided to leave muggle lyfe and head to Hogwarts. 

"Hi from Hogwarts! It was nice knowing ya!"

They used this 1:24 model for many external shots of Hogwarts.