#euroricks, part three

today i will share the second half of our london experience with you. part of it is pretty dorky, so if you're going to judge me on that a) quit reading and b) quit judging people that's a bad habit.

i left off just before telling you about my favorite day of our trip. this is the day we took a train from euston to watford junction, hopped on the tackiest double decker of all time, and arrived at the warner bros. studio tour of the harry potter dynasty. can i just? if you don't know this already (and you do, i know you do), jett and i are potterheads. jett read them as they came out because he's a cool kid, and i read them during a dark season of my life and they ripped me out of the depths and into a whole new world. we have taken a couple of trips to the wizarding world of harry potter - and most certainly are ready to go back since diagon alley is about to open woop woop - but this was the real deal. warner bros. has seized the money-making opportunity to turn the studios where the majority of the harry potter films were created. that was absolutely the first part of our trip that we planned, so the excitement was strong, man.

excited enough to precariously balance my camera on a rounded pole

out of respect for you and your loved ones, i will limit myself here. but i am still going to show off a few pictures and relive it while i document. the tour began in the great hall. THE GREAT HALL. the actual great hall. i was totally composed. did not tear up like at all. they had all sorts of props set up around the room and the costumes worn by the hogwarts professors were lined up at the top of the room. i took 27,000 photos and pushed one or twelve children. like physically pushed them. after we nerded out in there for a bit, they pried our fingers off the door jambs and moved us into the next area. from here, the rest of the tour was self-guided so we got to take our time checking everything out. there were almost thirty different "stations" set up that you could wander to. some were the actually sets and some were highlighting things like costume design and special effects. i could go on for days about this so i will show you pictures of my top three things i was most excited to see. okay top five.

so there was dumbledore's office including the pensieve (which is my favorite literary creation of all time) and the sorting hat and the sword of gryffindor.

dumbledore's office

then all of the character's wands were in one shiny display case. i decided that i would be super pissed if i were harry potter and then they took my wand from me for a studio tour. i digress.

all of the wands in one place

next was the gryffindor common room. this is a picture of the fireplace that sirius used to talk to harry in the goblet of fire. alas, no face in the coals.

GRRRRRRYFFINDOR!

they had a few of the walls from the ministry of magic's lobby. this was probably my favorite set in the films and it was cool to see how huge the walls were! they also had the spooky "magic is might" statue that stood in the middle of the fountain in the seventh film. i would like to add that jett is standing over my shoulder drinking from a ministry of magic mug right now. carry on.

ministry of magic

last and probably the coolest was seeing the potions classroom. it was changed a lot throughout the series based on how much action was going down in there, but this was the final set that they created for the half-blood prince. it was eerie!

potions classroom, photobomb by severus snape

the tour took us outside to see the knight bus, #4 privet drive, james and lily's house in godric's hollow, and a part of the bridge to hogwarts that we got to walk through. then we went back inside to see all kinds of props and drawings and finally to see the giant hogwarts model that was used to film all of the aerial shots. all in all, i think the nerd factor was off the charts, but we are equally ridiculous about this particular thing so it was amazing. we also picked up a copy of harry potter and the philosopher's stone from the gift shop and it might be my favorite souvenir. and now i want to re-read all the books.

THIS IS THE PLACE TO START READING AGAIN IF YOU ARE SCROLLING THROUGH THE THICKNESS OF THE HARRY POTTER FANDOM.

fast forwarding back to london, we took the tube to mansion house and crossed the very cool millennium bridge with a great view of st. paul's cathedral behind us and the majesty of the tate modern before us. this was the museum i was most looking forward to for some reason (gasp, not the louvre?!) so this was shaping up to be the best day of my life so far. we headed straight to the top floor's restaurant that boasts some beautiful views of the thames. they were offering an afternoon tea service so we decided to have a seat and partake. this was something that i was really wanting to do while in london and i was happy to check it from my bucket list. we each had our own pot of tea along with a three-tiered tea stand full of sweet and savory treats including macarons, tiny cakes, scones, and inexplicably delightful finger sandwiches.

why are these little sandwiches so appealing?

we quickly demolished (i wish i could use daintier verbiage here. alas.) everything on our table, teacups and all, and then headed down to the lower levels to check out some artwork. there is only so much one can say about a visit to an art museum, but it was my first time seeing a picasso in real life (that i remember at least) and i cried a little bit. there was also quite a bit of salvador dali's work that was so intriguing. jett was eating it up.

after a couple of hours of "mm yes" and "how interesting" and "this one makes me feel like springtime on the inside" and other things that curators mutter, we bowed out of the tate and headed toward our dinner reservation at the electric diner. we were a bit late for our reservation, so they seated us at a bar overlooking the grill so we could watch the cooks sneeze into our food while we were waiting on it. just kidding. they sneezed in the back. we ordered some delightfully delicious food - a roast beef sandwich with a horseradish sauce that was everything i want in life ever for me and a larger than life double cheeseburger for jett - and tried a few local beers and ciders in the mean time. i got to try a beer that was brewed a block or two away from the house we stayed in! we had a blast talking to the cooks and our waitress and just enjoyed the humming sound of drunk brits yelling over fellow drunk brits. brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.

behold: brilliance on a plate

after dinner, we walked all of eight feet to our next destination: the electric cinema. you guys. this is what heaven is like. i promise you that. we walked into a vintage-esque cinema complete with fresh cakes and adult beverages served from a bar at the back of the room and a charmingly lamplit seating area filled with high quality leather armchairs for each guest. there were tables in between each chair and a personal ottoman for you to rest your stinky feet on. a cashmere blanket was provided for each guest. i have no idea why i am not still there right now. we bought our tickets to see godzilla several months in advance and what a good idea it turned out to be! you know it's a good sign when the locals are asking you how you heard about this place.

absolutely living the life

for those wondering, seeing godzilla in 3D was shockingly good. we ended that night with a much recommended ride home with one of london's famous cabbies. these guys know their stuff! we were about a thirty minute drive away from our flat, so we were pretty grateful to not be on a night bus. our cabbie gave us history on everything we drove past and told us some fun stories about other people he had hauled around. after that exhaustingly satisfying day, we crashed hard once we got back home.

our final day in london found us exploring the portobello road market on a saturday morning. there were blocks and blocks of street vendors selling everything from antiques to leather purses to tacky tourist uniforms to falafel. we slowly wandered along the street, weaving in and out of shops and thumbing through racks of crap hoping to find some treasures. once we got tired/ran out of money, we stopped for some tapas at la bodega right on portobello.  we snacked on calamari rings and prawn croquettes and chorizo and meatballs and all kinds of things until we became too full to keep our eyes open.

fruit stand at portobello market

after a long morning of shopping on portobello, the natural choice was to move to oxford street and do some more shopping. we stopped at selfridge's, an enormous department store, and checked out five levels of electronics, make up, clothes, home goods, and everything in between. i found a cath kitson booth out of which jett had to physically remove my body. but not before i snagged a really cute blanket (that will later make an appearance at the eiffel tower). nailed it. we went up to the top floor and geeked out over all the cool food stuffs they had to offer then got a little sad when we saw the "american" aisle full of teddy grahams and boxed mac and cheese. pity.

we headed back to the flat to freshen up aka nap before heading out for dinner. we decided to spend our final evening exploring bermondsey. per our host's recommendation, we walked a short ten minutes to a neat little pub called the woolpack that was full of twenty somethings watching rugby. we headed up a tight spiral staircase to an empty-ish room and cozied up in the corner with a couple of pints and some fish and chips to end the trip correctly.

look! locals! watching rugby! drinking pints!

after dinner we took the long way home and came across a block party/neighborhood market that was happening. there were several rows of booths filled with freshly cooked food, tempting sweets, and homemade crafts. of course i was starting to feel nostalgic so i snagged a few postcards and trinkets while jett drooled over all the food offerings. we were drawn like moths to a flame to a liquid nitrogen ice cream bar. you could pick your flavors in liquid form, then they would use liquid nitrogen to turn it into ice cream. IT WAS SO COOL. probably not great for me but whatev. i got a peanut butter popcorn nutella concoction that was just as good as it sounds.

notice the "please do not remove from pub" shirt

after the scientifically advanced frozen treat, we decided london could offer us nothing more. after one more night in our blissful little flat, we headed back to st. pancras international, taking a brief detour to king's cross for a few platform 9 and 3/4 pictures, and waited for the eurostar that would take us to our final destination: paris.

that leaves us at our stopping point. stay tuned if you want to hear about how much wine we drank with cooper in paris!