Driving in England, Stonehenge and Cardiff, Wales

When we went to bed Saturday night, November 23, 2013, after all the Dr Who festivities were over, we truly thought that getting up Sunday morning to pack and such would be a simple thing. Nope! We were groggy, had to rush to get breakfast, pack...and pack...and pack. Our original plan was to be up and gone by 7 so that we could catch the trains that would get us to the Gatwick airport, south of London, where we had arranged to rent a car. Our itinerary had us going to church in a township near Gatwick with the possible drive to see the Temple there.

 

What really happened: no one was up before 8, we managed to get down to breakfast by 9ish (they close at 10). Packing was extremely hard as there were several Dr Who and tourist stuff we hadn't counted on. We had to consider who was carrying what (me? only my purse) and try to distribute the weight accordingly. Steve then arranged to have the hotel call us a cab that would take us to the train station in downtown London that  would put us on the express train to Gatwick.

 

When we all were finally down in the lobby all packed up (at 11am), Steve was dealing with our final bill and such when the kids and I went out and got settled in the cab. Due to leg room, I sat in front. :)  While waiting for Steve to complete his transactions, I was chatting with the cab driver...told him that our grand plan was to get to Gatwick, rent a car and drive to Stonehenge, then on to Cardiff, Wales for the next two nights of our trip. The driver sat there and did some calculations, even called someone and determined that he could take us all the way to Gatwick for much less than a taxi ride into London and purchasing tickets for the train times 4. Add in the time we would save by just having him drive us was a huge benefit. So we took the cab.

 

It was an additional bonus when we found out from Stephanie, who was listening to a local radio station on her MP3, that the train to Gatwick had hit a deer and was delayed. I also loved it that the cab was able to drop us off right in front of the car rental building.

 

Driving in England

 

Renting the car was fun. There were no other people in the lobby, so we had all the time we needed to get the car. Before the trip even began, I had declared that I would be the designated driver as the controls were on my side of the car...and so it was. The clerk had several choices of cars for us, so it was decided to go ahead and upgrade to the next level so that we could have the top of the line GPS system. That turned out to be money well spent! It will also probably be the only time I ever drive a new Mercedes. Loved it! Another good thing with me driving, my computer geek was able to focus on the complicated GPS and we were off.

 

At first all the driving was on main highways. It wasn't until we turned off to head to Stonehenge that we were on 2 lane roads. Our lunch pit stop was at a fancy rest stop...it had food, fuel and a motel. We just needed food and to stretch our legs a bit.

 

One really cool thing about the car...it knew when there was rain on the windshield and how often it would need to wipe them off. All I had to do was turn it on.

 

Have to tell you, there were backseat drivers a plenty in the car. It was not easy to stay on the left side of the left lane. I had no problems of wanting to be on the right side of the road...so my loving family was always telling me 'curb', or 'move over', watch out for that bush. I will say that while we were driving in the smaller towns, in the black of night that I did hit the curb two times (going slowly) and they claim I scraped a bush. My favorite parts of the drive? Going through tunnels of trees in the countryside. It was so dark that all you could see was shadows. There were times that those narrow streets were downright scary, especially with cars going in the opposite direction heading directly towards you. The GPS did save us...when I did make a wrong turn, usually from taking the wrong turnoff from a roundabout, she let us know right away and that made it pretty easy to get back on the right path.

 

 

Stonehenge

 

 

 

We arrived there about 3pm and the site closed at 4, so we didn't have much time. Even so, I am really glad that we made this stop an important part of our itinerary. After purchasing our tickets, we went on a low grade path that when you came up level with Stonehenge, the view of it was spectacular! There is a paved path that goes all around Stonehenge that you are required to stay on and both Stephanie and Scott went all around. Steve and I went about a quarter of the way and then went back to the main buildings where the tourist shop was.

 

Scott

Stephanie is taking most of these pictures. :)

Being Sunday, I was wearing a skirt. It was cold and damp, but we survived.



Sharon. Steve liked that we could see all the way across the monument from this spot.

Steve :)

 

Cardiff, Wales

 

This is where the Dr Who studio is, so yes, we had to come here. Please see my blog in December 2013 for all about that.

 

The only time the GPS failed us was at the end of our journey. We were in a big parking lot for a shopping center/mall. A quick call to the hotel had us there in moments. In this hotel, the rooms were bigger and we had normal bathrooms. The kids had a connecting room. I think that the hardest part of our trip was all the electronics that needed charging almost daily; three phones, a camera, a 3DS, an MP3...you get the picture. I had been smart and included an extension cord with my cPap, which saved us. We only had 2 converters each for England and France. Thankfully we managed very well with those.

 

 

I would have loved to explore this city much more, but what we did see was beautiful. When we finished our tour at the "Experience", we slowly meandered back towards our hotel by walking along a beautiful waterfront. For a Monday, it was very peaceful, the sun was shining and just plain lovely.

 

 

We then found a small shopping center, which was mainly a movie complex and eateries. To our delight, they were showing Catching Fire (a Hunger Games sequel) on their Imax screen. The movie came out this weekend, so it was really cool that we could see it in England. Having it on the Imax was a bonus!

 

By the time we came out of the theater, it was dark outside. So more meandering towards our hotel. That was my maximum speed. We had already decided that we would have dinner at Pizza Hut, which was next door to our hotel, so as we were passing it, I made the executive decision to go in and sit down while they took all our stuff (purchases from the Dr Who store) to our rooms and Steve could deal with our medicines.

 

While waiting for them to return, I ordered for myself the salad bar and a soda. I knew that all they would want is the pizza. We ordered two large ones and when we were finished eating our fill, we still had about 3/4 of a pizza left (the two combined into 1 box). Not wanting to waste it, Stephanie and I took it into the lobby of our hotel and offered it to the clerks. According to Stephanie, they were quite pleased to have it.

http://www.futureinns.co.uk/cardiff/
Future Inn

 

If you are ever in Cardiff, I would totally recommend this hotel. The staff were very welcoming and personable. The wait staff was fun to chat with too.

 

Next stop: Paris, France

 

Steve, on the train back to London

 

 

London Tourists

After we finished getting settled in at the hotel, we decided to take a taxi into downtown London, specifically to the London Eye. I could have easily gone to sleep without any problem as jet lag had a strangle hold. The travel expert we used strongly recommended that we get out and walk in order to get our bodies tuned into London time. So I was good and we went for another adventure.

 

London Eye 

 

Our first tourist attraction was the London Eye. We were told to expect long lines and that it was best to purchase our tickets ahead of time. Well, on this very cold, damp London evening, there was no queue to line up in. In England, they line up in a queue, not standing in a line. We were grateful that we had not pre-purchased the more expensive tickets.

Literally everything here was decorated in blue lights...loved it! This is looking up the side of the eye before we boarded.

Scott checking out the sights

Me? I'm resting my poor feet

Steve and Stephanie playing with all the different settings in order to get the best shot of Big Ben

Not too bad...  :)

I thought this was the best of the bunch.

Trying for an artistic view looking at another car

On the way down, looking up the River Thames

 

At the base of the Eye there were several kiosks set up selling all sorts of things. Both Stephanie and Scott bought gloves, Stephanie also got a hat. It really was that cold!

 

 

We are in an Italian restaurant waiting for our food...jet lag has hit them

 

Love Stephanie's grin...the birthday boy is resting his eyes...

 

After a very fine dinner, it was back to the hotel to truly get the sleep we all craved. We stayed at the hotel next door to the convention center, the Excel in the Docklands, that will have the Dr Who 50th Anniversary Event.

 

Around the Hotel

 

Here are some photos taken around the hotel:

 

A  formerly working crane

 

Steve :)

 

Scott

 

This is a statue of the waterfront workers in years past. It's between the hotel and the convention center

The Tube



The old bricks in some of the Tube tunnels makes me think that they have been around since before WW2. I have read novels that indicate that these old stations were used as bomb shelters...I totally believe it.



Scott walking ahead and me in my wheelchair in the bottom right corner. I think as new trains got added to the Tube system that they became brighter. I have to say that I was partial to the old tunnels

Stephanie and her camera



In all the Tube stations, there were lots of decorative touches.

Just admiring the brickwork. Most of the times the lifts were in places tucked away from the crowds, which was the case here,

  Walking Around Town

The iconic red double decker bus :)

Tower of London across the river from us

 

This is where we had dinner one night...Gourmet Burger Kitchen.  YUM!

Scott is being the photographer here. The night lights made it difficult to get good ones.

 

 

This was the last of our official days of being a tourist in London. Saturday was our day for the Dr

Who Event...which I have already done a blog.

Harry Potter Studio Tour

In the beginning, this trip was entirely Dr Who.  It was after learning more about what London has to offer that a studio tour of Harry Potter was included. Steve was fantastic in organizing the necessary tickets and figuring out how to get to the studio as it was not directly on the train network.

I have to admit that this tour was one of my favorite parts of our “Holiday”. Every time a new book or movie came out, I had to re-read the entire series before starting the new book/film. Please don’t shoot me, but it wasn’t until the 4^th book came out that I started reading the series…I was completely hooked and have truly enjoyed this series. During the first week after my foot surgery (on 10 December 2013), I watched the entire series again…this time watching out for all the different things I discovered on the tour. Here are some of the highlights:

 




Scott,  love his grin! Here we are on the train heading to the studio.

 

The official bus that took us from the train station to the studio. Both kids were loving the opportunity to ride a double decker bus. 

The Entrance

 

Steve is walking towards us with our tickets

  

I love the Weasley's! They were never afraid to show their love!

 

In the lobby was the only place to see the Weasley's car.

 

Let the tour begin...

This is not the way the tour took us, but my own way of remembering the details...  I'm trying to put the pictures in an order similar to how there were shown us in the movies.

Also, we were there in late November 2013, so all the sets were decorated for Christmas

 

 

4 Privet Drive

 

 

 

I was amazed that it truly was a broom closet. Another surprise was that Harry's bed was a cot and his bedding was a sleeping bag.



This is actually at Kings Cross Station and not part of the tour...it just fits putting these photos here.





It was fun 'pushing' my children off to school. :)

Diagon Alley

 

 

It really is a long alley with fun shops on both sides. Many things got changed with each movie, except for Ollivanders Wand shop and Gringotts bank. After Fred and George Weasley set up their joke shop, that too did not get changed.

 

 

 

The color differences are due to the lights changing from a day to night setting. This happens quite a bit on the tour.

 

If the railing hadn't been there, I would have wanted to explore this shop. The movies made it seem like a lot of fun!

 

 

Hogwarts School of Magic

 

The Great Hall

These doors are HUGE!

They learned real fast that using real food was not a great idea. Ice cream and chocolate melt!

The first movie used real candles, but dripping wax and falling candles had them putting in digital candles for all the other movies.

Love the owl!

 

Looking back at the entry doors.

 

The Classrooms

 

Only the Potions classroom set was available on the tour. Each of the jugs and bottles have things in them. It could be dried bones, berries, guts from the butcher...they were very creative. Had to be with over 1000 bottles to showcase.

 

Gryffindore Common Room and the Boys Dormitory

 

 

Costumes from year 3

Look closely at the tree decorations, I would never consider those ornaments on my tree. :)

The fireplace where we would see Harry's Godfather, Sirius Black.

I chose Ron's bed to showcase because of the knitted blanket. An interesting thing we learned about the poster beds: they were made for the 1st movie when the boys were 11 years old. Then they grew, and grew, and grew, but the beds stayed the same size. The actors were gracious and would curl their legs whenever they were being filmed while in bed.

 

 

Dumbledore's Office

 

I like Scott in the picture so that you can see the scale of the set. This one is of the staircase heading up to the headmaster's office.

The stairs behind Dumbledore lead up to his astronomy room.

 

The Sword of Gryfindore is above the shelf. I didn't get a good shot of the Sorting Hat, but it is on the other side of the office above where the pensieve was stored.

 

Other BIG Sets at Hogwarts

 

One of the Moving Staircases

 

The clock is enormous and the pendulum was swinging away for the crowds. Have to admit that I never bothered to check if it had the right time or not...

 

I thought it interesting for the snake door to be used in 2 different movies. Next to the door is the lock used at a vault in
Gringotts bank.

 

This bridge is seen in in most of the movies, so it still amazes me that this small section of the bridge can seem so big on screen. That's what the magicians are for.

 

 



 

This is to show you how uneven the floor is.



The gate at Hogwarts



The wrought iron work is fantastic!

 

 

Hagrids Hut. They actually had 2 sets, but only one on the tour. The first set was with overlarge furnishings so that when normal sized people sat there it looked like really big furniture. The other set was the opposite, letting Hagrid and his overly large dog be comfortable. There were also lots of cages and wheels hanging from the ceiling.

 

Portraits were hung all over the place, just like in the movies. They were painted by real artisits and all of them were of real people. Some were family members, but most were of the crew and supporting staff.

The first portrait that guarded the entrance to the Gryffindore common rooms.

 

 

The Mirror of Erised. Please note that Stephanie is inside the mirror taking her own picture.

The Goblet of Fire. It was carved from a single piece of wood and is huge! The carving in the center is quite intricate.

Mad Eyed Moody's cage for much of the 4th movie.

 

The Monster textbook.

The giant chess pieces from the first movie.

  

Ministry of Magic

 

 

These sets are 3 stories tall and I'm taking my pictures looking up at them. they really are these bright, vibrant colors.

 

 

This was taken with a different camera, but you can see the exits for the flue powder fireplaces.



Crushing Muggles

 

Dolores Umbridge's office at the Ministry. Do you remember all her plates with kittens on them in her office at Hogwarts? We learned that they gathered kittens from many sources and when they were finished taking all those pictures/videos of the kittens they were all adopted out, many of them to the cast and crew.

 

Dark Magic

 

When you watch the 5th movie again, watch how Dolores Umbridge's pink dresses get darker as she grows stronger in her power at Hogwarts.



The Malfoy's -- I loved that Mrs. Malfoy was always elegant, even in a forest gone wild with war.

Lord Voldimort's companions

 

His wardrobe was ugly! It reminded me of a sickly green, dirty sheet...

Tom Riddle's gravestone. The set is very tall.

The tangible Horcruxes. Very bad magic! Harry and Nagini, the snake, wouldn't fit in this display case.

 

Other Sets

 

I love this big purple bus! So much so that I even built a Lego bus (from a kit).

 

The shrunken head is so funny in the movie!

 

Scott and Stephanie in all their purple glory!

 

The 3 decker bus is a real bus that used 2 double decker buses to make one. It is so tall that they had to go through London on a specific route so they wouldn't have any bridges too low for them.
Because of all the traffic woes this would cause, they did all their filming late at night. Which was perfect as Harry was picked up at night. :) It's one of my favorite scenes from the movies.

 



When I was reviewing the photos, I couldn't place where I had seen this in any of the movies. Stephanie couldn't recall either. So I posted it on Facebook and asked about it. Thankfully one of my friend's daughter (same age as Scott) recognized it right off as the Leaky Cauldren! Well duh! That large crack should have given me a huge clue!

This set is very big! Those little barrels on each side are really big barrels.





 

This set is actually an optical illusion. Remember the scene when Harry is staying at the Leaky Cauldren after he blew up his aunt? The Maid knocks on a door and says "room service" and gets a roar back blasting her hair with wind, she turns around with her gear and goes another direction. Click on the photo to get a bigger view and you can see what I mean...that chair at the end of the corridor is only a dolls chair.



The Yule Ball

 

 

I loved the wardrobe here...so regal.

  

Poor Ron! Even I would be hard pressed to wear these!

 

The chocolate bar at the party...lovely, but fake... 

 

Harry, Hermione and Ron

 

Year 6

This was clever...sewing green screen fabric on the inside of his invisibility cloak.

 

Quiditch. This was all we got for the game outside of the "green screen" part of the tour. We were not allowed to take photos in the "green screen", so this is it...

 

Speaking of the green screen, here is the origami and the feather that was seen in a couple of the classes.

Hagrids flying motorcycle. I loved the sequence of editing in the 7th movie, especially when the bike gets turned upside down and Harry 'runs' along the top of a bus...  :)

The goblins drive this contraption along guide wires. The seat stays level while the wheels go wherever the wires take them.

In Godricks Hollow. The house Harry's parents were killed.

 

Creatures

 

Dobby was behind glass, but I have to admit that I really liked him!

 

Giant spiders...I totally agree with Ron...why couldn't it be to follow the butterflies?
Also, the head of the monster...

 

Buckbeak, the Hippogrif

 

Supporting cast and their wardrobes

 

Arthur Weasley

Molly Weasley's clock and her knitting needles...sadly we didn't get a good picture of her as she is sitting behind a table in the set.



Professors

Luna Lovegood's dresses and other costumes

More costumes...loved the lavender dresses!

Gryffindor

Ravenclaw

Hufflepuff



Slytherin

 

 

 Saved the best for last!

 

Hogwarts Castle Model

 

At the end of the tour there was this wonderful surprise for us; Hogwarts castle all laid out in miniature. There is a slow grade ramp around the edge that spirals you down a complete level so that you can see the castle in all it glories from both vantage points. They actually used this for all of the movies.

 

Be sure to click on the pictures for a closer look at the details.

 

 

 

See the Owlry in the background amidst the lights.

 

 

 

 

 

Moving from day to night...

At the bottom is the boat house where Snapes died.

This set was totally mesmerizing!

 

When we were finished ogling the castle, there was one last piece of the tour:



This room was not a set, but you felt you were in Ollivander's Wand Shop. There was a wand box for every single person who had worked on the movies; the cast, all production workers, food handlers, producers, writers...absolutely everyone! If you knew someone who should be represented, there was a couple of tour guides with lists of where everyone's box was located. Steve and I were really impressed with this finale of the tour.

 

Thank you for enduring this long blog.
We spent a few hours there in the studios and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Sharon...who sometimes wishes she had a wand to fix her foot!