Europe Travelogue Day 7: Harry Potter Studio Tour

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 , Day 4, Day 5 & 6

For the last day in London, we headed to the Harry Potter Studio on the outskirts of London, at Watford. L booked the tickets online for a fixed time. However, we took the wrong train and ended being late but they said it was okay so we just went in. I thought the studio tour was quite pricey, £31 (SGD 62) for a 2-3 hour tour.

Let the pictures speak for themselves

Us trying out the butter better! It was nice, a bit like the black tea macchiato Koi has.

They had a comprehensive souvenir store but I couldn't bring myself to buy anything cus everything was so pricey! Usual for Harry Potter merchandise I guess. L paid extra for the butter beer cup so he brought that back.

After the tour, we headed back to London to visit their Natural History Museum. We mainly looked at dinosaur stuffs

For our last dinner in London, we picked a restaurant we liked for a second taste & we chose Burger and Lobster!!

L looks so happy with his lobster claws.

Me with mine

I wanna Burger and Lobster again!!

With that, we concluded our London trip and headed to Paris the next day.

Europe Travelogue Day 5 & 6: London, Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3  & Day 4

For day 5, we went to another market called Camden market. I realized I didn't have a photo of it anywhere... The market was pretty average, but I bought some souvenirs for my friends there.

After that we headed to Tate Modern, which is an art gallery in front of the famous bridge in Harry Potter. Sad to say I don't appreciate art very much, but at least there are some explanations on the wall which helped a bit.

An interesting exhibit (must be, cus that's my only photo of the musuem lol)

The modern looking bridge!

A photo I took while on the bridge. You can see the tower bridge from this photo if you look carefully!

After that we went to watch Jerseyboys... which I didn't really enjoy. I should have known at first glance because almost everyone in the audience was >50 years old. I don't even know the group "The Four Seasons", who was really famous in the 1960s, much less their songs. We should have spent the money on Wicked or Lion King instead! But oh well...

That was the end of Day 5. It was a meh kind of day.

On Day 6, we signed up for the Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge (all of which were at the outskirts of London) tour using Viator. I thoroughly enjoyed myself because we just sat on the coach and waited to arrive at our destination instead of looking for directions everywhere. The tour was quite pricey though, as with all Viator tours, but I would say it's worth it because they managed to cover so many attractions in a day. Downside is we couldn't spend more time in each place because we had a tight schedule to adhere to.

Our first stop was Windsor castle:

Windsor castle is the Queen's weekend home. It's a good alternative to visit given that the Buckingham Palace is out of bounds unless you're a VIP of the royal family. The weather was perfect that day with a blue sky. Picturesque.

 

We were able to enter the State Apartments (where the royal family entertain their guests) and the St George's Chapel. All the rooms in the State Apartments were beautifully adorned by paintings, chandeliers and tapestries. It was all very royal looking.

We were quite lucky to chance upon the changing of the guards ceremony as well. In the Windsor 

castle, we can take photos with the guards. Meanwhile in London, it was not allowed after some tourist tried to assault one of the guards and to protect himself, the guard knocked the tourist unconscious.  

After Windsor, we headed to Bath. This town has the only natural hot spring in the UK.

Some church nearby

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Roman baths. It was built when London was under Romans' rule

Other than the roman bath we visited, we walked around in the quaint little town.

Then it was time to visit the highlight of the trip, Stonehenge! I was so excited!!!

Stonehenge stood somewhere out of nowhere. Our bus stopped nearby and we took another bus up to look at the Stonehenge up close.

Photo taken from my iPhone, enhanced by VSCOcam.

It's pretty cool isn't it. Some ancient people built this massive structure and now nobody knows what is it for. Some people it is to worship the gods, others say it's to tell time. But no one really knows... How did they even build such a massive structure in ancient times??

On the other side, there were sheeps grazing on the grass. The grass looks so green! Can I live there pls?

 The wind was extraordinarily strong at the site, so our hair were perpetually flying everywhere.

With that, we headed back to London...

Europe Travelogue Day 4: London again

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1, Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3

For our fourth day, we woke up early and headed to Portobello market, which opens only on weekends. It was sooooo crowded.

Look at the amount of people below

Firstly, we headed to the highly raved Hummingbird bakery. It was very crowded as well, but the service is prompt.

Salted caramel and red velvet cupcakes.

Om nom nom. I want to eat it again!! Their frosting was really good, it was comparatively lighter compared to all the other cupcakes I have eaten.

We bought churros as well. What L is holding below is the best churros I have ever eaten! Sadly, the best churros I have tasted didn't come from Spain.

Afterwards, we went back to revisit the sights (Trafalgar Square, St James Park and the Buckingham Palace) in our first day as we didn't get proper time to take photos and chill around the attractions.

A lame video at Trafalgar Square

Random video at Trafalgar Square #jwenadventures


The highlight of the day was feeding squirrels at the park! They are pretty friendly and will eat directly from your hand! We bought a packet of nuts from Marks&Spencer and tried to approach them. This is what happened!

Feeding a hungry squirrel, so cute hahaha


Some photos at St James park! The weather was fantastic, it was around 18 deg so it was cooling to walk around and look at grass and trees.

Buckingham Palace, where the Queen resides.

 Westminister Abbey, where Prince William wed Kate Middleton. All the attractions were within distance so we just kept walking.

After a whole day of sight seeing, we ended the day with dinner at Four Seasons! There were online reviewers who think that Four Seasons has the best roast duck in the world. We went early and managed to avoid the queue.

Famous duck!! It was indeed awesome. Like Burger & Lobster, it will be a must-visit if I go back to London again. The sauce is awesomesauce. I think the restaurant owners came from HK, cus the way they run the restaurant is so Hongkong style. Will ask you to quickly order and when you finish, they will quickly clear it away for you.

Since Chinatown was near Leicester Square, we went to get tickets for another musical, Jersey Boys, before heading home.

Europe Travelogue Day 2: London

You can read my previous posts here:
Day -1 & Day 1

L had a friend in studying in London and so we went to meet him. We had Poppies fish and chips for brunch. The fish was good and the portion was big. I just didn't like the thick cut fries.

L and his friend caught up a bit and then we left to go visit Tower Bridge! It was okay... I wasn't that impressed. Later I would be disappointed by the London bridge, which was even more unimpressive. The May weather in London was so erratic! But one thing's for sure: rain. That day, it rained sporadically like every ten minutes? Don't know whether to keep the umbrella or not.

The Tower Bridge looks nice from this angle! Gloomy gloomy day in London.

Another shot of us! We brought a tripod there. 夸张吗？I think bringing the tripod is a good choice! Cus I get to retake all my photos until I get the angle that I like and I won't be worried that a Caucasian stranger (whom I'll ask to help take photos) will steal my camera. Just don't lose any part of the tripod there.

Then we walked over to the unimpressive London Bridge. Reminds me of my childhood singing the London Bridge song.

Me with the sign.

Yup, the place I am standing on is the London Bridge. Nice?

Then we walked to Borough Market, which was pretty near to the London Bridge. 

 A stall that's famous for oysters! I think there's supposedly a stall that is famous for fish & chips as well but we were too full.

Oysterssssss. Did I mention how much I love shellfish? I love cockles, clams and oysters!! It was nice and fresh! It wasn't salty, the common fear I have when I eat oysters. L let me have 4.

After having our snack, we took a train down to see the London Eye. We didn't go up on it cus the tickets were quite expensive and there was a long queue! We just went to the field in front to take a picture.

The Big Ben was nearby so we walked over and this is me in front of the Big Ben! Wind was pretty strong that day, which explains my messy hair!

L took this picture!! Isn't it magnificent?

Took a train again (Yay to our 7day tube pass) to a Burger & Lobster restaurant close to Her Majesty's Theatre. I love Burger & Lobster!! Service was good and love how value for money it is! £20 for a burger or lobster. Compare it to the living standards in London, when a single way train ride cost like £4! So 5 train rides = 1 lobster meal, worth it right. Don't think you can get a lobster meal for $10 (5 single way train ride) in Singapore! The portions were pretty big!

Me with my lobster!

After our early dinner, we took a leisurely walk (roughly 20 mins) to Her Majesty's Theatre for <Phantom of the Opera>. It was soooo good! I have always wanted to watch it since Secondary School and I finally got to watch it in London 9 years later. When L and I headed back to our airbnb, we were humming to the songs. I love love love the songs, especially Phantom of the Opera (Title Song)!!!!!

Selfie at our seats.

I'm definitely going to watch it again if I ever go back to London! That's the end of our Day 2 in London.

Another version I found online!