We just got back from a wonderful one-month trip to Europe, starting with the United Kingdom (UK) and ending with Italy. This post is all about the third part of the UK tour: London. To hear about the rest of our itinerary including Bath, Manchester, and Edinburgh, check out Part I & Part II. London, of course, is way too big to see in a couple of days, but as this was my second trip to London, we spent time doing a couple of things I haven’t done before. Most of them turned out to be rather nerdy, indeed! One of them was my absolute favorite thing we did on the entire trip.
Dr. Who Museum & Shop in London
My husband, Graham, is a huge Dr. Who fan. We weren’t able visit Cardiff, which is where the show is filmed, but we did make a special stop in London just to go to the Dr. Who Museum & Shop. The guy behind the counter was a true Dr. Who fan, who was willing to chat forever about various aspects of the show. He appreciated the pin Graham brought from a PBS telethon in the 80’s, and instantly recognized it too.
The shop is a normal themed shop with some interesting items. To see the museum, you have to make a reservation ahead of time by calling the store. It costs 5 pounds to enter. Inside they have quite a few costumes and props from various Dr. Who episodes and each item is labeled with the episode and a picture of that item being used. If you’re a fan, you’ll probably appreciate the museum. If you’re not, you won’t think it’s anything special. I did, but only because Graham was having so much fun.
Tower of London & Westminster Abbey
The Tower of London was my favorite stop the last time I was in London and I wanted to make sure Graham got a chance to visit. If you only have time for one thing, this is probably the place to go. With over 1000 years of history, the British Crown Jewels, a neat armory, and the wonderful Yeoman Warder guides, there is so much to learn and see here. You’ll hear about gruesome executions and all of the famous people that passed through these castle walls.
We also took an audio tour of Westminster Abbey. As a cathedral, it’s OK, but as a cemetery it is pretty interesting. You have Darwin, Newton, and now Stephen Hawking buried there, plus a lot of other famous British figures, including many classic British authors. You can also see the Coronation Chair, used for centuries in the actual British Coronation Ceremony.
Harry Potter Studios
This is it! This was my absolute favorite thing we did on our entire month-long trip! For Harry Potter fans, the Harry Potter Studios outside of London is heaven. They saved and reconstructed so many of the sets from the movies, from the Great Hall to Dumbledore’s Office to the Gryffindor dormitory. You can walk through Diagon Alley, the Hogwarts Express, and Gringott’s Bank. There are dragons, special effects, fun green screen games, and, of course, butterbeer.
The studios are an hour outside of London. You can take the train and spend an entire day there if you want. We hired a coach bus that took us from the Victoria Coach Station directly to the studios. They provided our timed ticket and picked us up again roughly four hours later. I felt that amount of time was adequate. I wasn’t rushed and I didn’t miss anything, but I could have lingered longer. And I could go on and on about what they have at Harry Potter Studios London, but you should just go. I’ll let you discover the rest on your own.
Sherlock Holmes
We have a friend back home who has gotten VERY into Sherlock Holmes. So, maybe more for his sake, we ended up at 221B Baker Street to see what was there. You can peer into the apartment and take your picture with an actor outside. There is also a nice shop and a museum. We didn’t have enough time to go into the museum, but the shop is fun. I guess we have a reason to come back next time!
Getting Back to Heathrow
We had an evening flight to Rome and planned to take the train to Heathrow from Waterloo Station. We started our trip three hours before our flight time. Halfway through the train ride, something happened to the track and all lines to Heathrow were shut down. We had to pivot at Paddington Station and grab a taxi. This would have been fine, except it was rush hour and traffic in London is terrible. It took us well over an hour to get to the airport and nearly 150 pounds. The moral of this story is to start your trip to Heathrow early. We got to our plane in time, but only 20 minutes before our flight.
Next week, I’ll talk about our time in Rome: the good, the bad, and the ugly.