Aug 2: Back Among the Brits

Early departure from hotel to be at train station for the recommended 90 minutes in advance of our Eurostar Chunnel ride back to London. Since we were travelling as a family, and since Faith is still less than 12 years old, security sent us through priority check-in lines that moved much faster, such that we were through passport control with an hour to spare.

The only holdup was I didn’t have copies of our Eurail passes, even though I did have our seat reservations. I found the Eurail process really confusing on this trip: I feel like I only get it now that we are at the end of it. A second look at our online account suggests that Eurail shipped our passes to Calgary, but they didn’t arrive until after we already flew here. Maybe this hiccup is another reason it’s a good thing we didn’t try to do more Eurail outings on this trip.

During the Chunnel ride, Beth and I watched a French movie called “Les aventures extraordinaire d’Adele Blanc-Sec”. Kind of like a female Indiana Jones, but also involved some ancient Egyptian magic, a pterodactyl, and Paris in the early 20th century; pretty fun and weird.

Interesting to see our family’s reaction to being back in London. It was like a sigh of relief to be back in a “familiar” space, where we understand the language.

Arrived at St. Pancras (kind of sounds like ‘saint pancreas’) station, reloaded our Oyster transit cards and rode the Underground to Paddington station. We got to the nearby Dolphin Hotel too early to check-in, but we were able to leave our packs in storage locker there.

Had one more afternoon to explore London sights we missed on the first leg. Took the Tube to Westminster station and got views of parliament building and Big Ben clock tower. Thought we might try getting on the London Eye - a huge Ferris wheel - but there were no online tickets available, and we didn’t want to chance a queue for walk-ups. Ate lunch at neat restaurant inside the Westminster Abbey complex (the Cellarium), located in the same space where monks used to eat and store food centuries ago.

Walked back to our hotel via Hyde Park, passing Buckingham Palace along the way. Memorable stops in the park included the Peter Pan statue, a large pond with swans and geese, and a unique fountain in memory of the late Princess Diana. This was a surprising memorial: instead of a static thing to stand by and look at, it was like an oasis where kids and families could play. It certainly seemed in keeping with Diana’s public image as kind and motherly and hospitable. It was sobering, too, to remember that she was killed around the time of our wedding 25 years ago.

We pit stopped back at our hotel and checked in to our room. It was a very thrifty use of space; probably the first time we had ever encountered a single hotel room built for 5 people. The bathroom would definitely have not been to code back home; you couldn’t sit on the toilet without your legs being squished against the sink cupboard. Plus there was no A/C, and the bathroom kind of smelled like sewage. Good thing we were only here for one night.

Next was a roughly 1 hour train ride to Watford Junction station for the exciting last big tourist outing of our trip: Warner Bros Studio Tour of Harry Potter movie sets! Our family has been pretty big Harry Potter fans for many years. Beth and I started reading the series as ‘couple time’ before Thane was born (although we stopped when the books got darker, and we got into Lord of the Rings instead). Reid listened to excellent audiobook versions with all three kids, followed by watching all the films. Faith and Reid finished the books just days before our trip, and we all watched the last movie a few nights ago. So this was a ripe time to go to the place where all 8 movies were made, to get an in-depth exposure to the film making magic (pun intended!).

It really was a fun evening, and really gave appreciation for the multiple complexities in the process. All three kids were non-stop shutterbugs; Faith took so many photos of the exhibit my smartphone ran out of battery before the end! Some of the interesting take-aways:

• As much of the narrative takes place at Hogwarts School, there was a large cast of school-aged actors required. But this cast was actually twice as big as you might guess, because there are laws that limit underage actors to 4 hour work days, so they needed double the cast to make the filming schedule work. In the other hours, the kids still needed to do actual school work, so there was a whole team of teachers and tutors to make sure these young actors were keeping up their grades.

• The peak of the exhibit was a scale model of Hogwarts castle; it took up enough space to fill a gymnasium. The initial model for the first film took over 40 artists more than 7 months to build. For each subsequent movie, when more details about Hogwarts were revealed in the books, the model required a renovation that would take at least 3 months to complete.

• Butterbeer is a tasty drink! It is like a butterscotch version of cream soda, served with a lot of creamy foam (or “head”) that makes for solid milk moustaches.

• Everything you ultimately see on screen - characters, creatures, sets, costumes, landscapes, props, lighting, visual effects - begins with concept artists drafting amazing pieces of artwork to guide the work of all the other teams. These concept artists bring initial life to the imagination of the author and scriptwriters.

• Many of the staff worked on all 8 films over the course of 10 years; a pretty unique phenomenon in the filmmaking world. Several stated the relationships became more like family in the end, rather than mere work colleagues on a short-term project.

It was a 3 hour whirlwind of inspiration. The tour ended with its obligatory pass through the extensive gift shop, which is initially filled with impulses to buy everything, but then tempered by the pricing. We barely caught the last shuttle back to Watford Junction, and had another hour-long train ride back to Paddington. Easy to fall asleep after another 22,000+ step day - our last day before flying home!