The Hogwarts Experience: The Making of Harry Potter (SPOILERS!)

Warner Bros. "The Making of Harry Potter" was fantastic. We saw the cupboard under the stairs ("he has actually laid in that bed!!!");

The breathtaking Great Hall dressed up for Christmas (with giant test tubes that hold the house points, which I'd never noticed in the movie scenes before);

Costumes from the Yule Ball, wigs in a dressing room with a note note that said "We love Dan - when he doesn't scratch his scar off!", the Gryffindor dormitory with beds too small for the boys to fit in after the first couple of films;

The mirror of erised showed me at Harry Potter world with Matt! (it does work!);

The room of requirement stuffed full of random objects, the Gryffindor common room and the invisibility cloak;

Dumbledore's office was a highlight: four circular rooms layered onto each other with books, random magical objects, the pensive, an enormous telescope and the sorting hat..

The potions classroom was particularly cool;

So many portraits, Hagrid's hut, broomsticks, wands and The Burrow - higgledy piggledy, on all kinds of slants with everything home made by Arthur Weasley of course;

We saw the horcruxes and Malfoy Manor, creepy objects in Borgin and Burkes, and the spetacular Ministry of Magic Foyer & Umbridges vomit-worthy pink office;

A couple of hours in we stopped for some butterbeer (yum!) and a visit of Privet Drive, The Knight Bus and the Hogwarts bridge;

The chess pieces were one of my favourite things to see, enormous and terrifying.

Sirius' bike and the Ford Anglia were pretty cool;

We saw Fawkes, loads of goblin masks, warewolves, Sirius' animagus, the Basilisk, dragons and even Buckbeak the hippogriff - oh and we musn't forget Aragog.

Poor Dobby in his blood stained pillowcase was there too :(

But the most impressive sights were Diagon Alley and Hogwarts Castle. 

The Castle as pictured below was used for most of the filmed exterior of Hogwarts Castle, with some location filming around the UK. It was absolutely breathtaking, created with so much detail the magic was definitely alive in that room.

Week 1: 2015 & Cambridge

To kick off 2015 we started by checking out Camden Markets! Not for the first time on the trip, we arrived too early before everything was open (still adjusting to the time!), but this allowed us to check out the hip area of Camden without the bustling crowds.

We also visited both the science museum and the natural history museum this week; both of which were fantastic. Navigating through the science museum really proved how little I (Matt) knew about engineering. I didn't know how anything worked!

We got down and dirty and found a cheapo indian lunch in the pouring rain, were too underdressed to eat in so found a grungy piece of footpath under a bridge to feast #streetlyf

A visit to the Columbia Road Flower Markets was cheerful, with eucalypt branches a popular addition to bouquets and bright orange sunflowers.

At Spitalfields Market we found a bronze heart necklace with intricate detail and accurate scale of the human heart. Unfortunately it wasn't in our backpacking budget. 

At Brick Lane we made our way directly to an Ethiopean stall that Ally had discovered with Megan and Joe two years ago and the marketholders were impressed with our dedication to return. The injera and 'green pea things' were as delicious as I remember.

On a corner of Brick Lane we discovered a rustic chocolate shop with large wooden bowls presenting mounds of chocolate. We may have gotten a little carried away and spent more here than we did on lunch...

Ally stopped in the street and almost wet herself laughing suddenly. When she eventually caught her breath briefly enough to speak she pointed out that "Abbott's Chambers" were right next door to "Dirty Dicks". Awh yeah.

Today we set off for Cambridge. Cambridge was beautiful, so many old buildings with most of the college grounds open to the public to enjoy. A number of churches were built out of smaller stones than traditionally used for such large structures. 

Week 1: NYE in London

The morning of NYE we set out on a mission to find Rhodes House, and discover we did.

(they hadn't taken in their milk delivery yet)

 Unfortunately we encountered our first issues with the winter season, with most buildings in Oxford closed. This means we'll have to return later to visit the Bodleian Library (the largest collection of books in the world), inside Rhodes House & gardens, Christ College dining hall (features in Harry Potter as the Great Hall) and the Science Library.

We enjoyed a burst of sunshine outside the Science Library while we ate our sneaky lunch of breakfast buffet leftovers.

Posted our first postcard - and as we boarded our train back to London Paddington counted down the Australian New Year!

Back in London we checked into our new hotel in the center of the city and after a nap set out on foot to find a perch for the fireworks. After a walk through Winter Wonderland (German christmas markets and adventure park) in Hyde Park, we found a perch near Trafalgar Square with a great view of the London Eye and Big Ben where we took our posts to await the beginning moments of 2015. The 10+ minute firework display was very impressive and we cheered along with the rest of the crowd.

To celebrate the beginning of 2015 we have found a traditional British pub to hole up by the fire, pint in hand (not Fosters - on tap) and pub meal in the belly, to watch the football: Stoke City vs Manchester United. This is the life. Happy New Year :)