Friday April 12, 2019
On our final full day in London, we had a few things on our
agenda. Claire wanted to go up the London Eye, but it was pretty expensive, so
we decided to only have one of us go with her and let her choose who would
accompany her. She chose Liz, so I went to have my own adventures in the
morning.
My first destination was Battersea Power Station, an old
coal power plant (which, thankfully, is no longer burning coal) with a cool,
imposing art deco design. It was famously pictured on the cover of one of my
favorite rock albums, Pink Floyd’s Animals. I took the underground and then
transferred to a bus to go out and see it. To my disappointment, it was covered
in scaffolding and had a forest of construction cranes around it. You could
still see the four flues. But even in its current circumstances it was an
impressive sight.
I returned to the St. Pancras area and decided to wander
into the British Library to see their collection of historical documents. It
was an incredibly impressive room. It famously includes the Magna Carta, but
there are writings and sketches from Leonardo da Vinci, musical scores composed
by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, booklets used to save the text of Shakespeare’s
sonnets, a Tynsdale bible, other illuminated religious manuscripts, and much,
much more. A history buff could spend hours in this room. I perused the room
for about an hour before heading back to the hotel room.
(Mark again here.) We met Steve Wheeler for lunch at the Google office, which
is conveniently located right next to St. Pancras Station. Once he checked us
in, we admired the courtyard, which has an open space all the way up to the
ceiling of the top floor. Each floor has glass panes surrounding the courtyard,
and everybody has used post-it notes to make pixel art. There were a few
standards (Link, various Pokemon, a mushroom from Mario) but there were also a
few surprises, such as Calvin and Hobbes, Psy (of “Gangnam Style” fame),
Totoro, and the Internet Explorer logo. He took us to the cafeteria on the
bottom floor, where we could help ourselves to whatever we wanted, no charge.
Liz and I both went for the Vietnamese rice noodle salad bar, but I sampled a
few other items such as the tandoori chicken and steamed bok choy. The orange
juice was freshly squeezed, and absolutely delicious. They also had a few
desserts – we chose a kind of chocolate mousse in a small glass, with various
things on top such as cashews. Afterward, he took us to the roof to admire the
view of London. We thanked Steve, said our goodbyes, and went back to the hotel
to rest for a spell.
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| View of King's Cross and St. Pancras stations from the Google building |
Our final destination for the day was the Warner Brothers
studio tour, which is northwest of London in Leavesden (near Watford). We took
the Overground to Watford Junction from Euston station. From there, we hopped
on a themed double-decker bus which took us the rest of the way. We sat on the
top deck, and Liz was sitting next to a Belgian girl who was terribly excited
to be visiting. Claire was pretty happy to be going, too, and enthusiastically
bounded toward the studio when we arrived.
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| Pole dancing on the train to WB studios |
The tour itself was very impressive. The atrium had a large
dragon hanging from the ceiling. We watched an introductory video, and then they
let us into the Great Hall. All of the sets we saw were the real sets from the
films. They included the Gryffindor common room, the boys’ dormitory, the
potions classroom, Malfoy Manor, the Forbidden Forest, Gringott’s, Platform 9 ¾,
and of course, Diagon Alley. Claire was really interested in getting her tour
passport stamped and finding all the hidden golden snitches. The tour ends with
the large model of Hogwart’s, which was truly impressive. Claire said “Oh my!”
when we came across it. It had an extraordinary level of detail and you got to walk
around and see it from all angles. We took lots of pictures. Be prepared for an overload right here. Claire’s favorite
part was holding out her hand to make a broomstick levitate off the ground to
it.
It took us some effort to find a decent souvenir as all the
shirts were very expensive, as were the candies (we really did not want to pay
8 pounds for a chocolate frog). We settled on a small Lego set, which Claire
was satisfied with. To get home, we returned to Watford Junction but this time
hopped on a West Midlands train, which was faster and much more comfortable
than the Overground. We got back to the hotel for a late bedtime for Claire,
but she went to bed happy.
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| Claire hiding under her hotel bed |
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