Day 4 - British Museum and Hogwarts`

We had a long day today but it was really good. The weather has been great, I just hope it holds up for the rest of the vacation. We started the day by getting some food. Finding places to eat is always a challenge. Usually breakfast isn't so bad, we just try and grab something quick and cheap. As the day wears on, it gets increasingly difficult. We can't quite eat when we're hungry because we're doing something else at the time, we can't find a place to go, or we can't all agree on what we want. It makes it worse in the evening because we're hot and tired and just want some food. Despite that, we've had some pretty good meals. It's more expensive than home, especially with the exchange rate but the food has been good.

After breakfast, we headed to the British Museum. It's an amazing place packed with history. There's ancient Greece, Roman, Chinese, Korean, American, etc. There's so much that you can't see it in any depth in the time that we were there. A couple of my highlights were the display from the Parthenon, the Rosetta Stone, and some of the Egyptian mummies. There was one display of a person that died about 3500 BC and was laying in a fetal position. The body was in the display about the same way that they found it. It was so well preserved that you could still see some hairs on it's head and and it's teeth. It was odd to see it but amazing at the same time. To think you could get a glimpse of something that happened over 5000 years ago is awesome. There were big pieces of the Parthenon that they had received ( or stolen depending on the point of view) that were there for all to see. It was really amazing place to visit.

After our tour of world history, we ventured to the fantasy land of Hogwarts. We caught a tube and then a train and then a taxi to get there. Riding in the taxi was an experience. It's one where two of us had our backs to the driver and the other two faced the driver. The taxi drove through the streets pretty fast and it was strange because we went through a neighborhood pretty much the whole way. There wasn't an arterial that I could see. The Harry Potter Studio Tour was a lot of fun. We watched a small movie to begin with and then the curtain opens and you see the doors to the great hall. As you walk into the great hall, they have it setup like they did in the movie, with long tables and dishes on the table. At the front is the table the teachers sat at along with the podium that Dumbledore used when he spoke. They spent quite a bit of time in the details, things that you don't even notice on camera. We saw even more evidence of the details as we walked through the exhibit.  There were a lot of people but it didn't seem too crowded so we were able to take quite a few pictures. I think Rylee took probably 200 pictures herself. We saw the different creatures that they created for the movie, props, costumes and so many other things I can't remember them all. We did end up resting a little bit with some butterbeers, that actually were pretty good.

The big things were #4 Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, the big chess pieces, the bridge to Hogwarts, Dumbledore's office, the Burrow and Diagon Alley. All of these were displayed so well but the best piece was probably the last. They had created a 1/24 scale model of Hogwarts that they used for filming some pieces of the movie. It was amazing. A tour guide that we talked to said that this wasn't the original location for it. They had stored it somewhere else and it was starting to get run down, water damaged, and he said there was a fox that was living in it for a while. It took 40 days to dismantle it so that they could rebuild it for the display. It was truly amazing in it's detail.

After that, we headed home but the shuttle we were taking overheated and broke down. We waited for another bus and continued on our journey. It was nice taking the train as we got to see more of the outer parts of London.  When we got back to London we walked around looking for a place to eat and finally came to a decision, more based on fatigue than on how the menu looked. We lucked out and it was a good meal.

Tomorrow we head to Paris on the Eurostar that will go under the English Channel. We have to get up early but we should be in Paris around noon. Enough time to take in a few sights before turning in for the night. Wish us luck. Bon Voyage!

 British Museum

 Remains of person that died in 3500 BC

 The Great Hall

Broken down bus