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May 18, 2012 - 11:30 a.m.
"harry potter studio tour" or "salisbury"

5/18/12 - 11:30am Salisbury
5/18/12 - 06:40am New York

Hey Journal!

We had SUCH a long first day here that I couldn't even bear to write my journal last night before going to bed! But now, we've had an excellent night's sleep, and are up and on our way.... so here I am to fill in all the details from our first day in England!

Our plane landed a little before 8am at Heathrow, and after a long trek around the terminal, we had about a 20 minute wait to get through customs. It was probably the longest we've ever waited. The UK Citizen side was pretty empty, but the international had a pretty long line.

Unfortunately, after that, we never saw our friends from the security line at JFK again!

Anyway, the woman asked us a few questions about why we were visiting the UK, and then off we went! We picked up our luggage, headed through the weird maze that you have to walk through after collecting the luggage, and then we were off! We picked up our little wifi device at a desk near the car rental booths, and then we went to pick up our rental car!

We got checked in for that, and then went to the little bus stop to get a bus to the rental place which is right near the place we rented a car from last time. The guy who checked us in was pretty nice. He tried to make conversation, but it was a little awkward!

Our Harry Potter tour was at 11:30, so we headed up towards that! It took about a half hour to arrive at the Warner Brothers Studio in Leavesdale, and before we went into the parking lot, we looked for some quick food nearby. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any, so we ate at the cafe in the studio before the tour! We were pretty hungry!

We picked up our tickets, and went in to the tour around 11:45. It started out with a room that had a bunch of TV screens displaying movie posters from all of the movies in different languages.

Next, the doors opened and we went into a big movie theater-type room and watched a little introduction from Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Then we went through the giant doors of the Great Hall and in we went! The first room, of course, was the great hall! It was really wild being there! I took tons of pictures! It's the actual set that was used in all of the movies, and it has no ceiling or anything, just lights. The ceiling is actually a mini model, which we saw in the next room.

The rest of the tour was self-guided, and we wandered around looking at cool costumes and props from the movie, as well as sets like Dumbledore's office, Harry's dorm room, Hagrid's hut, Umbridge's office, the potions classroom, and many more!

After viewing a bunch of the sets, you go outside to see 4 Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, and some more cool items from the movies. It was MUCH cooler than the New York City Harry Potter Exhibit, which was full of "replicas" and other fake things from the movies. Also unlike that, you were allowed to take as many pictures as you like. It was incredible. I loved it.

Next, we went into the second soundstage where there were a bunch of animatronics from the movie including a giant Hagrid's head, and Buckbeak! Woo!

From there, we went on to the actual Diagon Alley!

It was a really cool tour, and we had a great time! Afterwards, we were pretty exhausted though, but we still had a long day ahead of us!

We hit the road, and headed to the south for our first day. We found a bed and breakfast in Salisbury called "Taylors Guesthouse." We had tried two others first, but they weren't available, and to be honest, I'm glad they weren't! This place was really nice.

When we arrived, the woman got us all set up with our room. It was really new, and really nice. Everything there was perfect. She and her husband gave us some directions to town for dinner, and we took a shower and headed off to town.

We ate dinner in a pub. I got a Sunday Roast, and it was very enjoyable. I loved it. Roast beef, peas, potatoes! mmmm!

After dinner, we headed back to the B&B, and I was READY for sleep! I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore! We got to bed around 9:30, and it wasn't a minute too soon! We fell asleep the second our heads hit the pillow!

So, that was our Thursday... and now we're driving towards Devon, and will be staying in Torquay tonight.

I'll be back later with an update!

Cheers! :)