Orpington

It was nice to spend a few days with Linnea and her little friend again. 

Linnea made us dinner:

The weather was gorgeous, and we walked about in the neighbourhood. Someone apparently had had enough of road works..! Ha ha:

Got a cuddle with both the boy and the cat, lucky me!

V&A Museum

After our London-weekend, I came with Linnea out to Orpington for a few days again. Although even though we had moved out there, we decided to go back into London while R was in school on the Tuesday. The city center is only 20 minutes away on the train.

We had discussed what to do with our day, and ended up going for a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum. A great choice! 

This would now be one of my new favourite museums! 

Many familiar items, similar to our own collection. Like this Nautilus Shell from 1621-40:

 

I really enjoyed the building, the collections and the curation. 

I really loved admiring the Cast Courts from above:

I can see myself coming back here every time I come to London for sure.

First we walked around by ourselves for a little bit, then Linnea plonked herself in the cafeteria while I followed a 45-minute (free!) tour. Win-win for all parts! 

A sculpture of John the Baptist, by Rodin 1879-80. He used a cast of half of this, to make the Rodin we have under the dome at LAD!

Harry Potter Studio Tour

So Sunday it was time for the Harry Potter Studio Tour! They main reason I even came up to London in the first place!

The first thing Linnea said when she had decided to go to England was: “Once I live there, I want to go and do the Harry Potter-tour”. The year went on, and none of her friends were really interested in coming along; so I offered to come and join her, as I knew how much she really wanted to do this.

She was electric!

We had decided to go all out, so we had booked in a Harry Potter-themed Afternoon Tea to start our visit.

It was served in a separate part of the entrance lobby, and not only did it energise us well for the upcoming Studio Tour, it was really pretty, and delicious.

I had also splurged on the Audio Tour, so we picked up our headsets and in we went. 

This was an incredible experience! Even for someone like myself, who have read the books, but might not be a total Potter-head. 

There was SO much to look for at each location inside the tour. Here, the Gryffindor common room:

So many details, so many fun facts, so many scenes! The Grand Hall:

We took it slowly and took it all in - and took tons of photos!!

 

In Professor Trelawney's divination class:

The Gringott's Bank:

The Lestrange's vault:

Diagon Alley:

The Hogwarts Express was quite impressive to see!

Halfway through the tour we stopped for a Butterbeer (yuk…):

Then it continued outside, with a visit to nr 4 Privet Drive, where Harry lived with the Dursley family:

And we could go on the Wooden bridge, and on the Knight Bus:

It then continued back inside. All over the tour there was Visitor Hosts who were there to answer questions, and present different things. That was really super, gave an extra dimension to the visit.

One of the main attractions and a real showstopper was the model of Hogwarts. 

So hard to make it justice in the photos, it was huge! Really impressive, we hung around it for a long time.

In the end, we also spend a lot of time in the souvenir shop. I only got a Christmas decoration for my tree, but Linnea picked up both a new hoodie, and - a wand..!

  

Such a great afternoon and what a wonderful memory to cherish together!