HARRY POTTER!

Anyone who knows us well, knows that the kids (and ok, lets be honest, and myself!) are huge Harry Potter fans.  We have loved the books, loved the movies, and just all around love anything that has to do with Harry Potter's world!  So, naturally, traveling in England and Scotland...we just had to do some Harry Potter sights.  I think this was the highlight for the girls.  We didn't do it all in one day, but we did see something "Harry-ish" everyday, and it was what the girls looked forward to the most.

Going to where it all began!  this is The Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling was inspired and began to write Harry Potter.  Hannah can recite the story at length.  Here at Elephant House, they have a policy that if your eating (or drinking since it is primarily a coffee house), the table is yours until your done, and the waiters leave you alone.  That is pretty much the policy Europe wide.  So, Heat being expensive in Europe, J.K. would bring her baby here during the day, where it was nice and toasty warm.  This place is set up on a hill, and the back is a steep drop off.  The whole back room is filled with windows the look out towards Edinburgh Castle and St. Giles Cathedral.  The prefect place for witches and wizard, princesses and knights, and Dragons to come alive.  She would sit in the back, with a view of the castle, and drink half her cup and write in the warmth.  When she was done writing for the day she would finish her cup, pay and leave.  Genius way to partake of free heat!

We ordered our cups of Hot cocoa.

It was ok, but we mostly did it to drink something from the place where Harry was created.  Who knows, maybe that creativity will rub off on us??

A stop at King's Cross Station (which is HUGE, can I just say!) to see Platform 9 3/4.

Then we also decided to eat dinner here in a little food court, balcony area right across from the platform.  There was a delicious little fresh mex place there, that reminded us a lot of Chipotle back home.  We quite enjoyed it, and also enjoyed watching all the "tourists" take their pictures at the Platform.

Next stop, Leadenhall market.  This is where some of the outside shots of Diagon Alley were taken.  You see Harry and Hagrid walking up this street in the first movie.  It is a preserved Victorian Market, now all resturaunts with a flea market atmosphere.  It is squished between towering sky scrapers in London's financial district.  You would never know it was there, until you happen upon it.  You can still see the metal hooks that the butchers used to hang their daily cuts of meat out on.  It was a pretty cool little place to see.

 So cool in fact, that we decide to have lunch here.  We had a delicious jacket potato (baked potato with toppings) and a panini.  The guys here were hilarious, and everything is made to order.  No menu...just tell us how you like it and we will make it.  It was a very enjoyable lunch!

Next stop...Honeydukes candy shop.

Of course, there is no real Honeydukes...but you see the inspiration for Honeydukes all over Great Britain.  That is how they sell candy here, in awesome, old fashioned (we would say), candy shops.  We went to this one, specifically because they put together a Harry Potter candy assortment bag.  We got Lemon sherbets, licorice wands, chocolate wizards, Chocolate frogs, and ....every flavor beans!  And yes, they were every flavor...I ate a moldy cheese one.  It tasted just like moldy cheese!

Inside the candy shop.  I found it amusing that Lucky Charms and Pop tarts are sold in the candy shop...!!!

 Here is the secret entrance to the Ministry of Magic.  There is not a telephone booth on this corner...that was a prop brought in for the movie.  I think they should have left it there!  However, it was fun to see this corner.  We recognized it instantly!

We did convince the girls to squish in a phone booth at a different location...just to see what happened.

 The crown jewel of our Harry Potter expereience was going to Alnwick Castle, which is used as the base for Hogwarts in the first two movies.  I recognized Hogwarts as soon as I saw it...it was magical, I could tell!

 The girls got to pick out wands and spell books

and then we took a picture HERE.  Recognize it...?  This is the courtyard where Harry learns how to fly a broomstick!  And he zooms after Draco to get back Nevell's remember all.  It was pretty neat to see in person.

 Here, Hannah is not only "spelling" dad, but behind Matt you can see a courtyard and a door into the castle.  This door leads to the state rooms and the main living areas for the family that lives here (yes, this is a live and functioning castle.  The Duke of Northumberland lives here with is wife and their two boys.  In fact, Prince Charles had stayed here with the family just the weekend before as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee tour)  Back to the story now, this is the courtyard that you see Hagrid dragging a Christmas tree across in the first movie.  Then he enter's Hogwarts through that entryway you see behind Matt.

We went inside and toured the State rooms, which I loved!  You could visible see evidence that people actually live in these ornate and beautiful rooms.  In the huge, amazing library, you would see animal print bean bag chairs stuffed in the corner among 18th century antiques.  In the salon you would see a flat screen TV, nestled among antique vases and china.  It was just incredibly cool!  The staff was very informative  and when they would see our rambunctious boys zoom past...we were regaled with stories about the Duke's boys and the different items they had broken over the years by playing ball in the house.  The girls loved going through the state rooms as well, because the Duchess had cleverly hidden little stuffed owls in each room.  There were 8 in all, and if the kids found all 8, they received a prize at the end.  The girls LOVED this...and Matt and I enjoyed it as well!  Nothing like a good "treasure" hunt inside a medieval castle!

 We took the tour offered, that took us around the different area's of the castle that were used in the movie.  It was pretty cool!  It was the first tour we have ever been on, where the kids fought to be right next to the guide, sat quietly and listened and were eager to get up to follow him to the next spot on the tour.  It was a fun tour.

 That concludes our Harry Potter experience until we are able to go to Universal Studios Florida in a couple of years.   Until then, we have beautiful pictures and memories of Hogwarts.  This was our Favorite castle we have been in, in all of Europe thus far.  It will probably stay our favorite even after our grand tour of Europe is over.  I don't think anything can top it!