Harry Potter Studio Tour, again!

 

We came and did the studio tour in 2024, but were only able to stay for 3 hours due to our transfer back to London. This time around we were at the studio when it opened and stayed for 6 hours. I was keen to look at all the sets, the art, the sculptures, the costumes, the props, the story boards & I wasn’t disappointed. I wish I could have sketched more, but inside was quite crowded & not conducive to sketching.

There are thousands of portraits painted by artist Sally Dray.

This statue was inspired by a Rodin statue

I really want to have a go at sculpting with some of this (it’s available in Australia!)

I did some sketching of the Knight Bus whilst Steve was exploring the rest of the backlot (Privett Drive, The Greenhouses, the bridge) that aren’t easy to navigate with a wheelchair.

This is Immy, one of the Interactors at the Harry Potter Studio Tour, who shared her love of Harry Potter, Film Making & her own art making practice with me. All the interactors were SUPER interesting and fun to talk with. 

One of the original story boards for the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Wales - Four Crosses, Wrexham & the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

 Our second last day in London our hotel room flooded 3cm through the bedroom floor, with water spraying all over the bed, making it un-sleepable. Because this was the second leak of the week in this hotel room, we moved for our last night to a different hotel. This meant we were REALLY happy to be picking up a car and driving out of London. 

Our first night out of London was in a tiny pub called The Farmers Boy Inn Guest House, which was beautifuly quiet, with a massive big comfy bed, and a wonderful breakfast the next day.

We went to Hay-on-Wye, which is a town famous for all the bookshops, where it was miserable and we ended up eating lunch in the car whilst it hailed!

Our AirBnB in Four Crosses in Wales had a lovely view out the window to the stables. The quiet farm was exactly what all three of us needed after the busyness of London and Florence. 

We had a day trip to Wrexham, where we had lunch in the Turf.

Wrexham Football club

Wrexham has an enormous amount of public art, mostly in the form of murals and sculptures.

Inside the ground

Inside the Turf

Stephen spent the day walking along the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which is terrifyingly tall, VERY narrow and still has canal boats travelling along it.

One last day of painting before the paints went into the bag to bring back to Australia.

The horses were VERY interested in Paddington & Skye

The AirBnB was perfect for our stay - a little tiny cottage, on a working farm, with a lot of sky and quiet https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1352093719596862805?

Hanging out with Friends in London

 

Flying back to London, the BA Staff took some photos with the Paddington Bear that we are taking on our travels for our granddaughter <3.

We got to hang out with our friends Addi, Donna & Paul!

And we had another chance to have dinner with Grant & Martin (we had dinner with them when we first arrived in London, but I forgot to take a photo).

La Pentola dell’ Oro Osteria

 

Our favourite osteria in Florence was only 50m from our apartment. The food here was AMAZING - it was easily the best food we ate in Florence (& over the month between us we ate everything on the menu) and some of the food was the best we’ve ever eaten in Italy, easily beating the food we had at a Michelin Star restaurant for our 30th wedding anniversary. If you are in Florence, I’d highly recommend you check this osteria out. As well as the food being amazing, the chef and his mum made us feel incredibly welcome.

This is Peposo, a Tuscan stew which was mind blowingly good. We are going to try and cook this at home, but I suspect we’ll have to come back to Florence to get this amazing dish.

Their menu is entirely in Italian, but they have a QR code system with an english translation of the menu. The Chef speaks excellent english and is happy to help with working out what to order.