We left London the next morning – me relieved and Rich sad to go – and got in a taxi to take us to Gatwick airport to pick up our rental car. This was a long and unpleasant journey through rush hour traffic but we finally made it. Gatwick is a long and arduous journey around the M25 but it’s a great place to rent a car from. The rental offices are right by the terminal, so no need to get an extra bus to get there. This is useful if you have a lot of luggage.
Our car rental was a massive Volvo SUV which would be ours for the next 4 weeks. Thankfully it had a large boot because we don’t travel light!
We didn’t have much time to play around with the car at this stage because we had a tight deadline to keep. We had tickets for the Harry Potter Studio Tour. So we zipped back round the M25 and made it just in time for our allotted ticket time at the Harry Potter studios.
This place is impressive. It’s the size of a theme park with clearly a lot of money spent on it. No rides though – it’s a walk through of various sets, props, and anything Harry Potter related you can think of. The main hall was the highlight, and you could really tell how much effort was taken on these sets – they looked like the real deal. Real flagstone floors and everything, you would think you were in a real medieval castle rather than a set that had been built only 20 years ago.
After a half-time break with some butter beer you continue on with slightly more interactive exhibits such as the flying car that you can ride on, the tall knight bus and the Dursleys house that you can walk through.
The forbidden forest with its huge spiders, the 3D dragon that comes towards you in Gringotts and the squealing mandrake plants you pull up were favourites with the kids. Otherwise I would say unless your kids are Harry Potter fans they may not be too interested in viewing the sets.
The movies are talked about with a hushed reverence and they take the whole phenomen very seriously. If you’re a Harry Potter fan the Harry Potter Studio tour is a must-do in England. Even if you’re not it’s an excellently produced museum to all things Harry Potter. Do book tickets in advance though – they sell out quickly and we were lucky to get any.
From Harry Potter we kept on driving around the M25 to our next stop which was my home town of Welwyn Garden City.
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