London & Hogwarts Adventures
We had a fabulous 4 days in London together recently. The end turned out to be a disaster, but that is not what I will remember the most. We saw the city from 443 feet up in the air, we found several red telephone booths, we visited Buckingham Palace, we spent time in a royal children's museum, we toured the Warner Bros. Studio - where all the Harry Potter movies were filmed, we ate some fish & chips, and we visited a few family history sites together.
Saturday, Oct. 14th: Scott drove us to the Venice Airport, where we had a successful flight on RyanAir to the London Stansted Airport. I had never heard of this airport before, but it turned out to be a pretty good sized airport north of London.
Video of him singing: (26 seconds)
The London Eye was even bigger than I thought it would be . . . we bought flexi-pass tickets, which were more expensive but it allowed us 2 things: we could ride whenever we wanted without a scheduled time and we could skip the line. This turned out to be such a blessing because Weston arrived to London very jet-lagged from Louisiana, and it was also verrrry chilly in London. The girls were cold and could have used one more layer while we were out and about . . .
The whole experience lasted about one hour and it was absolutely magical. We watched the sun setting over the Thames River and then the whole city came alive with lights.
Video looking down below: (10 seconds)
We walked to a nearby bus stop and made our way back to the hotel so Weston could drop off into the Land of Deep Sleep for the night. I walked to a little grocery store to pick up a few things so we could have some fresh fruit and a little bite to eat for breakfast that didn't require any refrigeration.
I was tempted to buy some cans of this . . . (ha ha just kidding) . . .
Sunday, October 15th: We had planned on attending church that morning, but then logistics got in the way. We hadn't realized that our one opportunity to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was at the same time as church, but in the opposite direction! Normally I do place church over anything else, but I laid out the information to our family group and we all decided to head toward Buckingham Palace for the morning. My hope was that we could find ways to feel connected to God and Jesus Christ throughout the day. I also made a silent promise to my Father in Heaven during my morning prayer that I would not spend money on anything extra that day, except for food. I thought that was one small way I could honor the Sabbath Day . . .
The walk to the Underground had some traditional row houses on either side of the road.
I loved seeing all the memorials and a quiet devotion to the former Princess Diana of Wales in many areas around London, especially in Green Park, which is so close to Buckingham Palace.
We found a little corner to commandeer, and could hear the procession coming well before we could see them. But finally, the marching band came in through one of the gates and we could actually see them.
Video of the Old Guard and band marching into the south gate: (12 seconds)
There is a lot of pomp and circumstance in the changing of the guard, but from what I read online, it's basically the New Guard coming to swap out the Old Guard. It involves a few inspections and a symbolic handing over of the Palace key to the New Head Guard, etc. But that's the essence of what happens.
Video of the New Guard coming in thorugh the north gate, closest to us: (39 seconds)
More marching and music: (14 seconds)
St. James' Park has trails and green space, as well as lakes and geese and bridges with lovely views in both directions. The Blue Bridge allows you to see the London Eye and Big Ben in one direction, and Buckingham Palace in the other direction.
Then we made our way through the rest of the Park and over to the Underground Station. London is very clean for being such a large city. I enjoyed the different neighborhoods and the architecture and charm of each one.
We were close to Big Ben in this neighborhood, too . . .
D is for Dress . . . (click to enlarge and read the accompanying note)
Answers will be shown below . . .
Video of Gwen learning to manipulate this magnet board to make things happen: (36 seconds)
Video Link: (28 seconds)
The Young V&A had a large upstairs area to create - whether on paper or in dress-up clothes performing in a small theater or otherwise. There was a beautiful staircase with mirrors that led to the upper floor, overlooking a food court area where many of the grownups gathered to visit while their children played.
Video showing the expanse of the museum: (10 seconds)
This next photo was taken through a peephole, looking into a room with a slanted floor and with a trick of the eyes . . . Amber appears to be much smaller than her daughter, Abby . . .
Video #1 of the trick room: (9 seconds)
Video #2 of the trick room: (9 seconds)
Above: Gwen is shining a flashlight into a model bomb shelter built underground, one that was used as an example to show what families had to do during WWII.
Below: A description of the apothecary shop (dollhouse) and why it was so important for Great Britains.
We let the girls play and explore for a couple hours, much to their delight. I failed to mention earlier, but the Young V&A is FREE to all who enter. What a wonderful gift!
Answers to the rhebus puzzles above:
Amber really wanted a special family photo for their upcoming Christmas cards . . . some research was done and we found a blog listing several locations around London that included a picturesque red telephone booth with something swoon-worthy in the background. We passed by one of those spots earlier as we walked by Westminster Abbey, but the line for the photo op there was sooo long. So we went on the Underground to track down another one of the suggested locations.
Gwen made friends wherever we went. She would sometimes just start talking to a total stranger, but always one that she felt comfortable with. She'd tell them things like: "I'm almost 6 years old!" "Do you know what my reading level is? THIRD GRADE!!"
This lady was completely enthralled with Gwen and asked her several questions as we rode along . . .
While Weston did the lap around the Cathedral to scout out the best spots, the girls decided that some dancing was needed in such a beautiful place. (16 seconds)
Unfortunately, I won't be sharing any of their family photos here, A) because I took the pics on Amber's phone, and B) it might ruin the surprise for their Christmas cards. But trust me, they are so cute!!
We found a really cute breakfast cafe around the corner from our hotel, with a mirror to watch yourself eat, ha ha.
It was only about 15 minutes from there to get to the Warner Bros. Studio. Amber and her whole family could barely contain their excitement!! Amber has read all the HP books at least a dozen times, Abby has read them all through once, and Gwen has read through the first three. (Once we got back to Italy, Abby started reading the series again, finishing books 1 & 2 in just 3 days!)
We saw Harry's "cupboard - or room - under the stairs" . . . (from the first movie, The Sorcerer's Stone)
I particularly loved the Great Hall of Hogwarts! It was expertly arranged and decorated for Halloween, since it was, after all, October. :)
The next area helped us understand some of the background to the film production process, like costumes and makeup, etc.
Video of some of the elaborate costumes that were used: (6 seconds)
Video of the Great Hall, with 100 floating pumpkins overhead: (14 seconds)
The guide that we had during this first portion of the tour explained that some of the desserts were fake and a few were actually real. She encouraged us to try and spot the real ones . . .
Video of some fairly recognizeable characters: (8 seconds)
Video of some of the wigs that were worn: (8 seconds)
Video of the "moving staircase": (6 seconds)
Something I had not considered before is that someone had to actually paint all the paintings that hung in the movie scenes. I wonder how many people they hired to do all of that . . .
Now I am not a Harry Potter super fan, and I didn't read any of the books, so I do not know the significance or the names of each thing we saw. But whether you are a super fan or not, you are welcome to just sit back and enjoy a simplified photo tour.
Video of Dumbledore's office: (15 seconds)
Video of Gwen commanding her broomstick "up": (8 seconds)
Abby shyly commanding her broomstick: (4 seconds)
Amber gleefully commanding her broomstick: (5 seconds) (You can hear Abby's excitement too)
In the adjacent area, we were not allowed to take any photos or videos because they offered a fun service and they wanted you to pay extra for it. First they take a couple of photos with a green screen behind you (our background would say "WANTED"), and then they put you on a moving broomstick with a green screen in the background. They tell you to wave, or lean forward, or tilt left and right, and to give yourself a fist pumping cheer at the end. They put it all together as a mini movie of you in a quidditch match, chasing the Golden Snitch and being crowned as champion at the end. It was a bit pricy when you have 2 children who participated, but Amber and Weston opted to just purchase a photo of each girl on their broomstick (for about 10 pounds each). The girls were sad that we walked away from the cool videos that were made, but we still had so much more to see and do!!
Sometimes the Death Eaters would randomly do a performance right in the studio near where we stood. I got a good video one of those times: (34 seconds)
Gwen waved her hand to magically chop some carrots: (14 seconds)
And then she magically got the scarf to knit itself: (17 seconds)
Next, we entered the Dark Forest where we encountered huge spiders and Buck Beak, a beautiful and majestic white bird.
Video of the girls reaching out to Buck Beak. They later learned that if you bow down to him, he will likewise bow to you. (8 seconds)
Next, we arrived at the famous train, Hogwarts Express. Amber said this was her favorite set of all, and that it gave her tingly goosebumps as she came around the corner and THERE IT WAS.
And a trip to the set of Harry Potter wouldn't be complete if you didn't get to push your luggage cart through the wall at Platform 9 3/4 . . .
More acting and hanging on for dear life to the triple-decker Knight Bus . . .
Video of me lifting one out: (4 seconds)
In the next building were some of the hideous creatures from Harry Potter and their makings: (11 seconds)
Video of Amber and Gwen controlling Dobby's movements through a computer: (10 seconds)
Buck Beak: (9 seconds)
A reenactment of a dragon invading Gringotts Bank: (48 seconds) *wait for it*
Explosion in Ollivander's Wand Shop: (27 seconds)
Brief sweeping view of Hogwarts: (5 seconds)
(Click the photo below to learn some interesting facts about the Castle)
Amber, Abby, Gwen and Weston - having the time of their life!
As we entered the gift shop, it was immediately apparent that some wizarding wands were available for purchase: (9 seconds) HOLY MOLY
We each left with something special from the gift shop: a chocolate frog, wands, stuffed animal keychains, books, magnets, and some disgusting jelly beans, ha ha. When I was reading some blogs and researching ahead of this trip, most people said to expect to spend about 3-4 hours at the WB Studio. Well, we ended up spending the entire day!! We arrived at 10:00 a.m. and we didn't leave until about 4:00. Exhausted, but fulfilled.
We had one more stop to squeeze in on our last night: a walk across Tower Bridge.
The last time I was here was in September 2018 with my sister, Charmaine.
Tuesday, Oct. 17th: We brought all of our luggage downstairs to a storage closet in the hotel, which was fantastic so we didn't have to haul it all over town with us before heading to the airport later that afternoon. After a short breakfast stop, we headed south by bus and train to do some family history sightseeing close to the Tower Bridge and the River Thames.
*Gwen's mischievous grin . . .
Me with Gwennie outside the church . . .
Amber, Gwen, Abby and Weston in the entrance . . .
We went down into the crypt underneath the church, where there is a sort of museum that houses artifacts from centuries long ago. They include the following:
Marriage record for John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Johnson, married in this same church in the year 1797. (note the small white paper with an arrow in the photo below)
An original drawing of William Penn Jr. in 1666.
A memorial plaque in honor of William Penn Jr.
An engraving of All Hallows in 1736. (click photo to enlarge details and read the summary)
A 1941 sketch of the immense damage done to All Hallows during WWII. (click photo to read more)
An explanation of the ancient Peacock Pluteus Stone found in the crypt below All Hallows. (click photo to enlarge)
Before we left, I noticed some helpful history posters for All Hallows by the Tower. (click images to enlarge)
As we left All Hallows to head to our next family history location, we had to cross the street at the nearest crosswalk, which allowed us to see the church from a good vantage point.
Video of All Hallows as we passed by: (9 seconds)
My 13th great grandfather, Nicholas Lanier, lived in this parish (a church jurisdictional area) when he moved from Rouen, France to London in the late 1500s. (approx 1561) His father, John Jerome Lanier (1499-1572), is buried here.
The adorable back door to the church, open and welcoming us to enter . . .
A statue to memorialize Sir Andrew Riccard, who died here in 1672, which would have potentially been in the same time frame (though slightly later) as some of my Bassano and Lanier ancestors. I wonder if their paths ever crossed . . .
Video of James at the piano in 2018: (31 seconds)
A list of the Rectors who have served in St. Olave's Parish since 1319. While I didn't recognize any of the names, some would have certainly served here when my ancestors attended services in this church.
A sign next to the front door as we exited . . .
Link to an article that references the Bassanos and their connection to the "Bell":
Pay particular attention to the paragraph that is entitled "(C): The house of John Bacon". (near the end of that paragraph)
Sort of an explanation of what the plans are for the site . . .
Along one side of the fenced off area surrounding the Tower, there is a helpful timeline of its history.
Today, that old Bell Tower is undergoing some significant renovations. You cannot get close to it at all, because it is surrounded by barriers. (Barely distinguishable in the photo below)
Airport Timeline:
- 2:30 p.m.: We arrived at the airport 2 hours ahead, as per the written recommendation from the airline. (RyanAir)
- 3:55 p.m.: We finally make it up to the check-in counter to get boarding passes and drop off our luggage, after standing in line for 90 minutes.
- 4:15 p.m.: We are scrambling to get through security, even though our tickets say that our gate closed at 4:10. We are not given any priority at any point thus far, even though we are in the right places and doing all the steps required of us.
- 4:25 p.m.: We arrive at our gate, completely out of breath from running nonstop through the airport for an eternity. I was on the verge of an asthma attack as well . . . Our gate is closed and there is no one in sight, even though our plane is still parked outside the window.
- I collect my breath and my wits and dash over to a nearby gate to ask for assistance from a girl working there. She tells me there is nothing they can do. We have missed our flight and now we have to go back, collect our luggage and start over. Seriously??
- Dejectedly, we follow her instructions and work our way back to where Customer Service is located, on the opposite side of where we stood in line for almost 90 minutes earlier to check our bags in.
- The girls are tired, thirsty, hungry, and we haven't had a potty stop in a while. Weston suggests that I take the lead when we get to the front of the line. I gratefully accept.
- The CS lady clearly did not like her job, based on her body language and facial expressions and lack of eye contact with us. She went through her standard protocol, and basically told us that because we missed our flight, we now had to pay a 100 L (L = pounds) fee per person (approx $125 USD EACH).
- I asked if we could speak to a supervisor. Enter Mr. Zero Sympathy. I told him how we arrived 2 hours ahead and that there was no efficiency in their check in process. He put all the blame on us. I told him to check the security cameras to see that we arrived in a timely fashion. He did not care. He said we should have asked for more help so we didn't miss our flight. There was nobody to help us until we got to the front of the line, and by then it was too late! But, according to him, it was all our fault. Not once did we get any sort of apology.
- He had the lady (pretend to) look up to see how many people made the flight and how many missed the flight. He lied and said that we were the only ones who missed the flight, when we knew of about 10 others who also missed the flight. We even saw him "help" a young family who was ahead of us in line, but he denied any recollection of that conversation.
- They lied again by saying that there was a flight heading out first thing in the morning and there were only 5 seats left. We did end up on that flight and noted that there were several empty seats . . .
- They lied again by saying repeatedly that because we had purchased the Family Plan (which enables us to sit together because we have small children), the cabin crew on board would be the ones to rearrange passengers so that we could have seats next to the girls. She told us that no one else could do this; ONLY the crew on board. But that didn't happen either. They made US figure it out for ourselves with zero help from them.
- I was pretty mad at this point, but I didn't want to blow my top. When I needed to, I just stood there, silently stewing long enough to make them uncomfortable on the other side of the counter. She gave me a paper with the information I needed in order to file a written complaint. We paid the roughly $125 per person and finished up by getting those "last" 5 tickets on the 6:30 a.m. flight.
- And then we settled into the airport until the next morning.
A short time later, I saw a girl (20-something) a few tables over who looked very upset. She appeared to be crying and mumbling to herself in frustration. I told Scott I would call him back and then I walked over to her. I said, "Are you okay?" She was speaking with a thick accent that I couldn't distinguish through her tears. I asked if I could give her a hug, to which she accepted. I learned that she, too, had missed a flight, and had been poorly treated as well. She now needed to catch a bus down to Cornwall, but she didn't know where to go and was all alone to try to manage way too much luggage by herself. When I asked how could I help, she indicated that she needed help carrying her luggage. She had 2 heavy and poorly maneuverable suitcases, plus a weird shaped and saran-wrapped bag that was incredibly heavy and awkward, with only a makeshift saran-wrap handle to carry it.
I told her that everything would be okay and that I would help her get to where she needed to go. I let Weston know what I was doing and made sure I had my phone with me. We had to ask 3 times along the way to make sure we were going in the right direction, but we received a lot of kindness each time. We made it to the bus ticket office outside the airport, where she purchased her one-way ticket and got into the correct line to wait. She was so grateful for my help, and I was so happy to give it. It gave me something better to do than to just focus on all my anger and frustration with RyanAir.
Her name is Beatrice and she is originally from Southern Italy. She currently lives in Cornwall with her boyfriend. Her bus trip would be about 11 hours that night (blech), but at least he would meet her at the other end.
I gave her lots of hugs before we parted ways.
Weston and I checked all the big suitcases back in around 7:00 p.m. for what they called, "Twilight check-in". While we didn't have any toothbrushes to freshen up with, at least we didn't have to stand in any more long lines once the morning came.
The girls napped for a couple of hours on the benches, which was nice. The grownups stayed up the whole night . . .
One of the ways we passed the time was to make some new friends and have interesting conversations together. We met Carlos from Costa Rica, who was very intelligent and multi-lingual. He is 46 years old, single, used to work for Equifax (USA) but is now pursuing a doctorate degree in business. He has family in Germany and England, and also missed his flight. His plane coming in was late, which was completely out of his control. He loves hiking and anything outdoors, so we had fun swapping photos and stories about our recent adventures. He was very interested in Amber's artwork, which led to us all exchanging Instagram account info with each other. He was a very chill guy and a great conversationalist.
We also met Sarah and her 11 year old daughter, Vigga (Vee-gah), from Copenhagen, Denmark. They had flown in to see all the Harry Potter stuff at WB Studios, just like we did the day before. Vigga was so darling! She has her own YouTube channel and loves to be in the spotlight. She and Abby really hit it off and ended up swapping info to stay in touch as Pen Pals!! We enjoyed a lively conversation as Sarah joined our small group. She is very witty and was fabulous in entertaining all 3 girls with guessing games and pretend play.
Sarah, Vigga, Abby, Weston, and Amber . . .
At 3:00 a.m., when the security area opened back up, we all stuck together until it was time to head to our respective gates. Making new friends certainly helped the time pass more quickly during that long night.
Wednesday, Oct. 18th: We had no issues with the new flight, with the exception of us having to figure out a way to sit closer together on the plane, since the cabin crew refused to help us. As they closed the plane door, and having already noted that there were SEVERAL open seats around me, I hunted Weston and Abby down at the back of the plane and had them move up to sit by me. So much for the validity of the customer service agent who told us, "These are the LAST five seats available on this flight" . . .
Our new signature phrase is: "Thanks RyanAir."
Thanks for a super slow check-in process that makes people miss their flight.
Thanks for blaming everything on us.
Thanks for making us miss a whole day of fun back in Italy as we made our way home a day late.
And thanks for making us pay out the wazoo for the whole experience.
I am working on my email to them, to plead our case and see if I can get a refund for the "missed flight fees". Not a fun process, but a very necessary one.
The sunrise was admittedly beautiful as we left England. (Thanks RyanAir)
Welcome back to Venice, Italy!! Hooray - we finally made it.
Scott picked us up in phases, since we couldn't all fit into our little car. We loaded the girls in first, plus all the bags that could fit. He drove Amber and Weston to the train station (Venice Mestre) so they could ride back to Vicenza, while I waited at the airport with the rest of the luggage. Then he came back to pick me up and to squeeze the last duffel into the back seat in between the girls. It served well as a place for them to lay their heads during the 45 minute drive home. Once the girls and I were in the house with all the gear, Scott drove to the Vicenza station to pick up Amber and Weston. And then he went to work for the day. :)
What a tired mess we all were. I got maybe a one hour nap, which helped me limp through the rest of the hours until bedtime. Amber baked Gwen's birthday cake for the following day, and we also made a video call to Scott's dad, Phil, to sing happy birthday to him. He is now 92 years old!!
As I said earlier, even though our London trip ended on a really sour note, it did not change the overall fun that we had.
Last but not least . . .
Here are a couple of darling photos of Avery. (I can't remember if I already shared the first one or not) She sure is growing up!! I still haven't seen her since July, but I am hoping to see her within the next week.
Jack has been enjoying some farm experiences in Minnesota.
Video of Jack feeding a baby cow: (14 seconds)
I couldn't resist one last photo (or two) of my baby brother, Michael, holding some of their new baby chicks up in Northern Idaho.
You're welcome. And have a wonderful week!! :)
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