Darmody Eurotrip: Last stop- London!

LONDON! 

I missed London. Abby and I had a great time when we went in April (besides the whole missing our bus thing), so I was excited to be back! The first day we wandered (I limped) around, and then went to a free organ concert in Westminster Abbey! Pretty neat (even though I was the only one who didn't fall asleep). 

Hope you get your free Baba's platter, Mel!

Then we went to bed early because in the morning we were going to THE MAKING OF HARRY POTTER!!! 

If you don't like Harry Potter I would suggest 1) skip through this post and 2) don't be my friend anymore

Am I the only one excited or....?

Ugh, J.K. Rowling, love ya

The cupboard under the stairs!!!! Dying.

Just the entrance to the GREAT HALL

Me and all my friends.

This is me. Sitting in the Great Hall. In. The. Great. Hall.

Chocolate mice!

A few wigs. Who knew they wore wigs?

I must not tell lies!

A few of Harry's clothing items.

The Leaky Cauldron!

Gryffindor boy's dormitory!

Just the entrance to DUMBLEDORE'S OFFICE.

A single Golden Snitch.

Dumbledore's Office.

Sword of Gryffindor!

All of these were hand painted, and the people in them were actually people helping with the movie!

The pensieve. 

The Triwizard Cup!!

The Goblet of Fire! My favorite book!

Snape's potions classroom. 

Tom Riddle's diary that Harry stabbed with a basilisk fang. This is serious stuff people. 

Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. I thought this was all animated but no!

Inside of Hagrid's hut. 

Gringotts vault door. 

The burrow!

Dad making the dishes wash themselves. Magic.

Professor Umbridge's office.

Ministry of Magic!

All hand carved.

Death Eater!!

The Knight Bus!

Tom Riddle's grave.

Casually knocking on the Dursley's front door.

Hogwart's Bridge!

Creepy Inferi, and my dad who clearly isn't impressed.

A few Gringott's goblins.

Voldemort!

Fawkes!

DOBBY! R.I.P.

Hagrid! For a lot of the scenes they used this mechanical head on a rugby player to portray Hagrid's size!

Scabbers! Not as cute as my little ratties R.I.P.

Baby Fawkes!

Kreecher.

Extremely life-like and creepy Dumbledore.

Baby Voldy.

One of the saddest parts in the entire Harry Potter series.

Mad-Eye Moody!

Gringott's Bank.

Diagon Alley!!!! Is this what Heaven looks like?!

Replica of Hogwarts. The amount of detail that went into making this movie was unbelievable.

 

Me in front of my home.

PHEW and that was the making of Harry Potter!!! I learned so many things about the movie that I had no idea about. It was MAGICAL. Even my dad liked it, though he won't admit it.

I think this was my favorite part....

Yea we dabble in Quidditch.

Now all I have to do is go to Harry Potter World in Orlando and I can die happy.

Since we did something I wanted to do, now we had to do something my dad wanted to do. The British Museum. Yippee.

Easter Island statue!! Easily the coolest thing in the museum.

Rosetta stone.

Then we took an infamous cab ride! Pretty fun even though their faces don't show it.

Naturally we wanted to be as touristy as possible and rent bicycles. It didn't last long, however, because as hard as driving on the left side of the road would be, I can guarantee you bicycling on the left side is way worse. 

We love checking our phones family bonding!!

Then we visited Abbey Road which was right by our apartment.

And got this excellent photo of us crossing Abbey Road, via the security cameras. 

Aren't we cool?!?!??

The next day we did the Hop on Hop Off Tour!!! I loved this last time I visited London, but this time it was even better because I wasn't afraid of catching pneumonia! 

Proper.

Everyone is ordered to share with me.

Big Ben and the London Eye! Nailed it.

Sibs in the back!

I learned a lot more this because we had a live guide instead of a pre-recorded tape. One of my favorite stories was how the Great Fire of London in 1666 was started by a man leaving an oven on in his bakery. A monument was built to commemorate the Great Fire of London, and apparently if it falls backward it would land right on top of the bakery where the fire started! 

After touring London a few times, my dad and brother went home while the rest of us went shopping. Leaving empty handed (I got some ice-cream so it wasn't a complete bust) we went home to have some authentic fish and chips! Then in the morning I headed back to Den Haag, while my family went back to the United States. I am so thankful my family came to visit and see where I live, as well as other parts of Europe! It was my brother's first time out of the country, and he would say "Si" in France, and "Oui" in London, but we were all shocked when he didn't get anything pick-pocketed! Good job bro, proud of you!

And that was our vacation! 

I came home to these lovely birthday signs from my roommates!!! Family take note- these do not say "Happy New Year"