This morning, we explored the temple grounds one more time and the sisters in the mission office let us take a look around so Lee could reminisce in his memories of the mission. Then we talked to President Irwin who served as a counselor in the presidency of Lee’s mission.
Once we were done walking about, we drove the car to East Grinstead to look around the high street. Of course, we stopped at Gregg’s to get some pastries and also went to see the church there and his old flat. We then topped the car off with gas and drove to Gatwick to drop the car off and catch a train to England. Luckily the drop-off process was fairly quick, and we made it just in time to buy our tickets and catch a train to London. We then took the subway to the area of the Airbnb we are staying at. The owner met us at the station and walked with us to the apartment, which was on the 6th floor of an apartment complex found in the middle of a bunch of construction projects. It had a great view of London, and it was nice to have the whole apartment to ourselves rather than share the space with someone else.
We relaxed for a while then hurried back to the station to travel to the Harry Potter Warner Brother Studios. Sadly the station wasn’t working so we had to walk to a bus stop and we were rushing to get there in time for our tour. We rode the top level of the double-decker Harry Potter studios bus and made it just in time for the tour.
The tour started with the set of Harry’s closet under the stairs, then to a short video of the Harry Potter movies, and a description of everything we were about to see. It was really interesting to see how they filmed all the scenes and made the movies the way they are. Once the short video was over, they opened the doors to “Hogwarts” and we were in the Great Hall with the costumes of the different wizarding houses, and manikins/models of the professors of Hogwarts.
We ended up touring just about every set for all the movies, and we saw dozens of wardrobes, wigs, make-up kits, and costumes for all of the actors and actresses. From the Gryffindor common room to Hagrid’s hut we discovered the magic of Harry Potter and all the technology that really made the movies into what they are. We even got to ride a broom and “fly” through the air, with the help of a green screen and Quittach robes. We also climbed aboard the Hogwarts Express and walked down Diagon Alley until we reached the end which was probably the most impressive part. Through the last doors, they had a model of the castle of Hogwarts that expanded across a large room with lights shining on it. Of all the castles we visited in England, I think Hogwarts was my favorite! It obviously wasn’t big enough to go inside but it was the coolest model I have ever seen, with so many tiny details.
At one of the cafés we ordered Butterbeer and Butterbeer ice cream, which were both a lot better than we had imagined. They tasted like butterscotch soda and ice cream, and I could have eaten a whole gallon of the ice cream, it was sooooooo good. Then we decided to buy a Christmas tree ornament of the Hogwarts Express and a chocolate frog as we exited the tour.
By the time we left, it was pretty late so we caught a bus and a subway train back to where we were staying. Before going up we bought a few groceries and went to a small fried food restaurant to buy dinner. Lee ordered a mixed shish kebab and I tried a Pukka pie with lots of fries (or chips as they say in the UK). Then we watched some British TV as we ate our dinner and enjoyed sitting down.
