Europe Day 6: Harry Potter

Monday, June 8, 2015

Today we did our drive back from York to London. It was interesting getting out of the hotel’s tiny parking lot, but most of the rest of the trip was on motorway and went very smoothly. I was more comfortable driving on the left at that point as well. I was struck by the courtesy of the British drivers: when I signaled a lane change, they actually made space for me rather than rushing to fill the space as they do so often back home.

The Hogwarts Express locomotive

Our intermediate stop today was Warner Brothers Studios, the primary site for the filming of the Harry Potter series of movies. As you might expect, they have turned this into quite a tourist attraction. The exhibits were excellent; I was very impressed with the attention to detail on everything, down to the writing of original stories for the newspapers that appeared only fleetingly on the screen. My only disappointment was the heavily promoted “butter beer” they served at the snack bar. It turned out to be just an overpriced cream soda with some dairy froth on top.

We continued to Heathrow to return the rental car and then took the Underground to our hotel, the Premier Inn near the Earl’s Court tube station. Like so many British hotels I have stayed in, the route from the lobby to our room was somewhat circuitous, involving two elevator rides and a passageway across the street. It was late when we finally arrived, so we grabbed a light dinner at the hotel.

This article is part of a series about our recent vacation in Europe. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.

Model of Hogwarts