Today has been a whirlwind, probably because it was a rather long day on top of a very long travel day the day before (that really was two days in one). Confused yet? Me too. And tired. I am so, so tired tonight! But I wanted to get this post out there, and I’ll try to book in some more time in the coming days so I’m not up late blogging and falling asleep.
We left on the 29th of May – and landed on the 30th with the time change. Weather delayed us a bit, life delayed us a bit, and with the help of KeyTours, our travel agency vendor for this trip, we were able to find our ride to the hotel and arrive just about at 2pm at St. Pancras Hotel. Why St. Pancras, you may ask? Well, check out the photo! Our hotel was in used in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – it’s the backdrop for one of the flying car scenes where the boys steal the car early in the movie. It’s also straight across from King’s Cross station – where Platform 9 and 3/4’s famously “doesn’t exist”.
The St. Pancras Hotel, Autograph Collection
Check in for the hotel is at 3pm, but they very graciously held our luggage and we settled into the hotel lobby lounge with our complementary prosecco, and took in the ambiance. The lobby lounge extends the almost the entirety of the front lobby, where you’re clearly hanging out in a much larger building, made to feel like an outdoor patio with plants, strategically placed dividers, and the help of the fact that the roof is glass and probably forty feet above you in a massive open-air space with expansive doors to the outside at the front. If we hadn’t been so tired (I think I was the only one who slept on the flight for any reasonable amount of time), it might have been cozy – but we were ready to get to our rooms as soon as they were ready. That took two hours, but we enjoyed some snacks, a few drinks, and listened to a violinist who played violin versions of some very odd songs! She did it so well, though, that they were recognizable and a few even made me laugh. Here are just a few of the set list that we identified:
- Disney’s Little Mermaid suite
- Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag
- Michael Jackson – Billy Jean
- Counting Crows – Accidentally In Love
- The Beatles – Elanore Rigby
The Lounge at St. Pancras Hotel
Eventually, we checked with the hotel staff again proactively after about two hours… and our rooms were ready! We got our keys and headed up. Inside our hotel is fine, nothing fancy but nothing to sniff at either – it’s a Marriott now but obviously one converted from a much older building while keeping everything intact. I rather like it! They also have a few things they do for history – including free drink demonstrations each day where they may something like a ‘rum punch’ drink and invite you along for some laughs, a bit of history, and a free drink. We attended the ‘rum punch’ talk after a bit of time relaxing and refreshing – and ended up getting a good drink, and a good show! They light it on fire and everything along the way as they mix the drink! That… didn’t come across here well in the photo but you get the idea! It’s on fire, I promise.
After that, it was off to a quick local chain for an easy dinner that was meant to be a bit more kid-friendly than the rest of our day at a place called Prezzo (where I had Lasagne, they do a bechamel cheese sauce! it was delicious!) and off to bed. The next day we began our Harry Potter trip in earnest with a walking tour right after breakfast.
Lasagne at Prezzo
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel – we took an early night because we had an early morning…
and that leads me to….
Day 3! Our first official Harry Potter day!
Today I woke up early after some poor sleep – I’ve learning something new: I am apparently now allergic to feather pillows… and this hotel is fancy enough that their natural feather pillows are triggering my allergies something fierce. I woke up again and again feeling sick with a head cold, but a few minutes away from the bed and washing my hands and my face… I felt better. So – I asked the hotel to swap them – and then it was time for breakfast before we headed out to meet our tour guide.
The hotel offers a breakfast included with our booking .It’s at the same restaurant as our nightly rum cocktail – Booking Office 1869. It’s beautiful, I love this restaurant, and it helps that the drinks are tasty too and the breakfast is just as good. I ordered a Full English breakfast, something I’ve had in Ireland but never here, and it didn’t disappoint!
A Half-order of their Full English Breakfast
After breakfast we headed out to meet our tour guide, Rob, who would be starting our Harry Potter trip in earnest – and do so by taking us on a walking tour around London. We started off at the British Houses of Parliament – where you can see Big Ben. We walked all over, from our starting point down into the metro, to Trafalgar Square (where the last Harry Potter film’s release drew thousands), across the Thames and back in a river boat, and then to the Millennium Bridge and finally ending our day where they originally filmed the Leaky Cauldron scenes in the first and second Harry Potter movies – a site that was, and is now again, a retail shop. I’ll add a few pictures here with captions, it’s going to be hard any other way to explain all the places we went!
Our route for the day
First was the trip to the Houses of Parliament, that’s the taxi ride indicated above – to the bottom left.
Yep, that’s Big Ben (well, the clocktower – the bell is officially ‘Big Ben’ according to our tour guide)
It’s sorta weird to go to London and not see the normal things, but… this IS a Harry Potter trip, after all! Only a few tourist stops for us!
This was pretty much our day – our tour guide, Rob, showing us scenes from the movie from his binder as we walked through the city. It was actually quite fun – believe it or not!
Rob, our tour guide, was great! He was very good with my nephew as we walked over five miles around London, stopping at all sorts of sights.
You might be familiar with this scene – Ron peeked around the corner shown, Harry behind him, as they snuck their way into the Ministry of Magic.
This building,now a hotel, was also in the same movie as above, and historically housed the original Scotland Yard!
Trafalgar Square, where the premier of the final Harry Potter film occurred
We walked and walked… all around London. I have so many photos! This is Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, yes that one. Shakespeare was also in the Harry Potter movies – can you remember when?
While not Harry Potter specifically… this was the building where Herman Melville lived while writing Moby Dick – just wild that we walked right past it!
We even took a boat across the River Thames, just a small cruiser boat I unfortunately forgot to photograph… but it was all to see the bridge:
The Millennium Bridge, London – Destroyed by the Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
And then, of course, we walked across it!
St. Paul’s Cathedral – across the bridge back towards downtown London
A London subway station – something that will come into play soon
Eventually the tour wrapped up inside a very familiar market – one Harry and Hagrid walked down towards The Leaky Cauldron in the first movie…
And suddenly there’s a familiar looking building…
And here’s me – standing in front of the Leaky Cauldron’s facia – or what it looks like nowadays, anyway!
This ended the morning tour, and after a quick stop in a gift shop for Harry Potter fans next door – we headed out looking for food. We ended up across the street at a pub whose name (and honestly, their food) were forgettable – it wasn’t bad it was just ‘pub food’ for sure, and it wasn’t meant to be much more than that! I had the Fish and Chips, because you know… it’s England. It was fine, and that’s really all I can say about it, really!
We decided then that we’d head back on the train to St. Pancras as it sits directly on a tube station and they have the official Platform 9 3/4’s photo set up for photos along the way. We hopped on the Tube (the subway/metro in London is called the Tube), and made our way up the Northern line from the Bank Station to St. Pancras station. It was busy, the trains were very crowded… unbeknownst to us at the time were right on the forefront of a large wave of people coming into the city for a soccer parade – you see Arsenal won the Premier League – and all of London was celebrating – except us – who had no idea!
Still, we packed our way on the train, and made it back just before they apparently closed the St. Pancras station as well due to volume – we snuck back just in time before the Tube was overwhelmed. We made it to Platform 9 3/4’s, stood in line and got pictures, and headed back to the hotel rooms for the evening before dinner. I’ll share the Platform photos probably in the wrap-up – sorry we’re still downloading them I think!
Dinner was within the hotel, a restaurant called the Hawksmore- it’s a steakhouse and I got a ribeye, and bone marrow, and mushrooms. Writing his is making my mouth water! It wasn’t perfect, but it sure was delicious! They have a starter of scallops that I wish I had gotten a picture of – but I can say hands-down it was one of, if not my favorite ever, scallop dish I have ever eaten in my life. It was full of garlic, and served still on the shell – a new experience for me and a very delicious one.
Dessert was also delicious! A ‘cheesecake’ with blueberry and basil.
After dinner… it was time for us to get to bed. The next morning our guide would pick us up at 7:30 AM for our Harry Potter Studios tour. Not to ruin anything for anybody but… it’s an amazing tour. Yes, I’m behind on posts – we’ve already done the tour and I’ll work on getting the next day’s blog post out! I have not been sleeping well, I’m allergic to the feathers on the bed apparently (something new for me) but I’m starting to catch up a bit. Maybe at the hotel in Edinburgh I’ll have a chance as well.
Day 4 coming soon!
