Harry Potter in London: Muggles Tour of the City

Since this was a trip designated to all things Harry Potter in London that we could squeeze into three days, we decided to see London from the eyes of Witches and Wizards, and went on a Muggles tour of London.  We took off our wizard robes and donned on our muggles clothes, with the exceptions of the house scarves that the girls decided to covertly wear.  We met our tour guide,  Lukas Lestrange for a tour of London.

Our first stop was at the Leaky Cauldron in the Borough Market. This exact store was what was turned into the Leaky Cauldron in the movie.  The top left window in the picture below was the window used to take the shot taken of Harry looking out the window in the fourth book.  It was fascinating to learn that the doorway was made of styrofoam.  

I think one of my most favorite facts that I learned about the Borough Market was that the film makers made the Knight Bus off site and then brought the bus to the market.  However, someone must have been fired that day because it was too tall to fit under the bridge we were standing under.  The film makers only had one night to film this part of the movie, so on the spot the bus was re-done while the cast had to sit and wait, which is why there was a shot taken out of the left window.

We continued to walk through Borough Market and walked past the fish & chips restaurant, The Anchor.  This actually wasn't Harry Potter related, but it was super cool to learn that it is the oldest pub in Britain.  William Shakespeare even wrote some of his famous writings in this exact pub.

We walked past some ruins in London and Lukas took a second to explain that this is how the wizards hide in plain site.  A normal muggle would just walk past this and just simply ignore the building as an old run down rotting ruin, when in fact it is enchanted and in truth is a wizard shop or home.  I loved how Lukas was always in character.  It made the tour simply delightful.  He also kept the kids attention the entire time.

We stopped at The Golden Hinde, which is a copy of the first English vessel to circumnavigate the globe. This ship was the inspiration for the Durmstrang Ship that was created for the fourth movie.

We had a fun stop at the Millennium Bridge with another super great story. This is the bridge that was used in the sixth Harry Potter movie.  The bridge in the book was a fictional bridge according to JK Rowling, so she said they could use whatever bridge they wanted in London.  This particular bridge was actually made super bad and it swayed and had massive issues.  The designer of the bridge was so prideful that he said it wasn't the bridge but the way the people walked on it.  As a joke and a mockery to this situation, the Millennium Bridge was used in the movie and notice the next time you watch how they make it sway.  I so loved this.

While at the Millinium Bridge, Lukas pointed out that St. Paul's Cathedral, which is the big church at the end of the bridge is where the spiral staircase is located that was used for the staircase to Professor Trelawney's Divination classroom.  The tour didn't have time to go to the church, so we ended up going to it on our own.  We had plans to go in the church, but it was going to cost about $80 for our family, so we decided just seeing the church was good enough.

And this is what we had to say about it costing $80 to enter a church... What?!?

As we made our way back to Borough Market and to the tube station, we walked down Clink Street and passed through the tunnel by The Clink, we stopped to learn that this location inspired the Prison of Azkaban. The unsavory people that walk this street, the dark shadows that fall over the tunnel and the prison itself all have the feeling of Azkaban.  The location wasn't used for the filming, but parts of it was used as inspiration in the actual set. This made us laugh, because the hotel we were staying at was right at the end of the tunnel, so we joked that we would see a dementor out of our window one night.

We got on the tube and stayed together in our tour group and took the tube to Westminster.  We had our Oyster cards ready and made it to Westminster without a hiccup.  As we were walking out of Westminster, we passed down the same escalator that Harry and Mr. Weasley went down to get the the Ministry of Magic in the Order of the Phoenix movie. It's like Big Sis is right in the movie.

As we were exiting, Lukas even showed us the exact entrance/exit that was shown in the movie when Mr. Weasley couldn't get the arms to open.  I asked if any kids wanted to walk through and get a picture and Big Sis willingly volunteered.  She laughed the entire time she walked through.  This is the epitome of a Potterhead.

Our next stop was the Ministry of Magic.  Lukas showed us the very spot where Harry, Ron and Hermione hid before they went into the Ministry of Magic under polyjuice potion in the seventh movie.  We were told the doorway where Kevin is standing was transformed using, yet again, styrofoam.  I guess the design was so poorly made that Harry didn't dare move or else the entire thing would fall on him, that is why he doesn't move much in this part of the movie.  We then looked down the street where the telephone booth was made and where the Ministry of Magic would have been.

Our last stop was probably my favorite, Knockturn Alley.  This is actually Goodwin's Court in London and it had the most magical feeling than any spot we went today.  The story here is that this is the place where 11 publishers were located that turned down JK Rowling when she was trying to get her manuscript published.  She used Knockturn Alley as a 'stick it to you' to those chum publishers.  I could have spent all day here, it had darkly painted buildings and amazing real street lanterns that just added so much magic to this little easy to miss alley.  There were even a few window that had broom sticks and stuffed owls peeking out. The last bit of information Lukas shared with us was that the alley was too small to do the filming, but JK Rowling insisted on using it, so they took pictures of the entire thing and made an exact replica in the studio so they could still use the location for filming.  Even the skylight window at the top of Borgin and Burkes is in this alley.

By this point, poor little Monster had fallen asleep and the kids were exhausted and hungry.  We all loved our day and loved walking through London as wizards dressed as muggles.  It was great seeing film locations and inspirations for the book and the movies.  I highly recommend Muggles Tour London.  It was a day of magic making memories.

Vietnam: Beautiful Old Town Hoi An and An Bang Beach

Old Town Hoi An has such charm. I was captivated by the ancient French colonial yellow buildings everywhere and the abundance of flowers and trees. We came to Hoi An at the perfect time because the trees and flowers were in full bloom. I don’t know if they are always in full bloom or not, but it was gorgeous.

On our first day, we decided to walk around Old Town Hoi An and do a little exploring and site seeing. One of the first buildings we saw was directly across from the clothes district and was bright yellow throughout. It seemed to be a city hall, and was used as a landmark for us during the rest of our stay here.

We started at the City Hall, which I will call it, and just started walking the streets. We didn’t get very far before we walked past an old temple with a huge green gate with beautiful green shutter windows. I marveled at the windows, lanterns and the paintings.

After walking around Old Town for a while, we called a Taxi to check out An Bang Beach. We knew we wanted to go to the beach today, so we all had our suits on. We got to the beach and were overwhelmed by the rows and rows of umbrellas.

I did read somewhere before coming here that if you just walk to the end, you can sit in the beach chairs free, as long as you purchase something from the restaurant associated with the chairs. At the front of the beach, they charged to use the chair then charged more for food, so we walked a little ways down the beach and past the crowds and found the free chairs with food or drink purchase. I bought an ice cream and sat down.

The beach has beautiful white sands and pretty clear waters. There are so many people that it’s hard to really see the beauty of the beach beyond them. We sit and watch the crazy paraglider. These crazy people pay a boat to lift them straight off the beach. We watched quite a few failed attempts, some that made me cringe and know that someone got hurt. One time the boat stopped and the person plummeted into the water with the parachute and all. They were in the water for a while before the boat pulled them through the water until the parachute caught the wind and took them out of harms way. Why anyone would pay for sand in the mouth and skid marks from the water, is beyond me.

We stayed at the beach a few hours until the sun set below the horizon. I’m not a get-in-the-water type of gal, but I did love walking along the beach, feeling the heat from the sun on my skin and relaxing in the beach chair not having to worry about constantly watching kids for fear of them drowning. It was glorious. We ended up eating dinner at a beach side restaurant before calling it a day.

Let’s return to Old Town again. While exploring Old Town another day, we visited the old Japanese Bridge. I was expecting something a little bigger and grandeur, so was a little disappointed when all I saw was a small Asian bridge over a small river. We had to pay money to cross the bridge, and I was thinking something amazing would be on the other side or inside the bridge, but all I found were normal shops on the other side with normal people shopping. Inside the bridge was a small worship room, where incense we’re being burned, it wasn’t anything that wowed me, so I walked away wondering why the hype of this bridge.

We continued walking in old town and found more and more shops. This is where we found the leather shop that made our purses and shoes. We also saw more of the beautifully old yellow buildings.  

We found ourselves walking along the river, which was super cool. There were boats in the water on both sides of the river with men shouting out trying to get tourists to pay for a ride down the river. There were also men on little tut tut bikes calling out for tourist to rest their weary feet and take a ride. We never took a boat ride or a tut tut ride, but it was fun watching others do so.

We went back to Old Town a few more times and one of my favorite experiences during the entire trip took place in Old Town at an old house with a sign saying ‘Visitors welcome, free tour’. It was hot and the inside of the house was calling to us, it was beautiful, ancient and had red lanterns covering the entry way. As we stood staring in, but not brave enough to walk in, a kind women comes out and in perfect English tells us to come it.

We are welcomed by a super kind women who then starts walking us around her home. She explains that the home is owned by her and her family and is one of the oldest houses in the area. The family still lives in the home, but they open it to the public. We walked around the beautiful home, and are shown amazingly old antiques owns by the woman’s grandparents.

The family is generations old silversmiths and still own the tools owned by their grandparents. We were shown cabinets and dressers that were hundreds of years old. As we were walking around the house this super happy and funny man comes and turns on a portable A/C unit and starts following us around our tour of his house making sure we were nice and cool. He had such a contagious laugh.

We are brought to one of the last rooms which hold the ancient silversmith tools. We find out the A/C man is the owner and husband to the nice lady and also a silversmith. He then shows us how to use each of the tools. He would hold one up, and say “What is this?”, and we would all take guesses as he laughs his cute contagious laugh. He would then show us how to use the tool and demonstrate its use.

He then offered to clean all our jewelry for free while we walked around the last room, which held the silver jewelry that he and his family made. Boy did they pick the right girls for this! I think they saw the sparkle in our eyes as we took in the earrings and rings and necklaces; hook, line and sinker.

We spent the next hour or so draining our bank accounts on jewelry. One thing I really wanted to get while here was sterling silver earnings, and we had hit the motherload. The wife was the one who designed the earrings, rings and pendants and her husband made them. The designs were so pretty. I was wearing my earrings that I bought in Thailand at the Silver Temple, and she liked them so much she took a sketch and picture of them to make a new earring design for their shop.

After talking with them for a while, and buying lots and lots of jewelry, the wife asks if we have eaten a particular noodle dish that is only found in Hoi An. She then orders the meal to be delivered and sits us at their kitchen table and feeds us dinner. We talk about their shop, the food, our families as if we are old friends. Holly and Heather both served missions and they shared a bowl and ate every last drop. They were telling Cori and I that this is how the people serve and show their love, and they will get offended if we don't eat it all. Cori and I do the best we can, and I eat until I feel like I am going to pop, but in the end there was still 1/4 of the bowl left. Sure enough when the wife came back she made a comment about us not eating it all, lol.

We ended up spending a good part of our day here, but it was time well spent. It was wonderful to spend half a day with strangers who became friends.

Vietnam: Hoi An’s Never Ending Shopping

Hoi An has the most and best shopping from any other trip I have ever been on. The biggest attraction of Hoi An is the shopping, but not just any shopping, it’s custom shopping. They have a clothes district and a shoe district and a leather district. In a matter of 24 hours you can have dresses, shirts, ties, purses, shoes, you name it, made to fit perfect in the color or design of your choice.

The first thing we did was head over to the clothes district to have some clothes made. We wanted to make sure there was enough time to get measured and then fit before we left. When we got to the clothes district, we were immediately seized upon by the shop owner piranhas. I felt like a large piece of meat that was being fought over. We were followed and pretty much told where and what we had to do. We needed to exchange money, so one lady took us to someone who could exchange money, then she sat and waited for us to change our money.

I had done my research before coming and had already picked out someone that I wanted to make my clothes, Sewing Bee. While Heather, Holly and Cori got swept into the first tent, I walked around looking for Sewing Bee. I found her easy enough and then she and I went about choosing material and a design for some dresses and shirts I wanted made. I brought my absolute favorite Micheal Kohls shirt with me and had her copy the exact design for three new shirts. I also had three tunics made and two dresses. Holly and Corianne also had dresses made, and Heather got some dresses made for her girls.

After getting everything situated with our custom clothes, we found ourselves being swept into the shoe district. The sister of the piranha then grabbed the other girls swooped in and brought us to her shoe shop. Corianne had some super cute shoes made there. It was neat seeing all the designs and color possibilities. I remembered that Big Sis needs some church shoes, so I took pictures and tried to figure out how to get her some shoes. It took a day to get Cori’s shoes back, and I was just in love. We ended up stopping at another leather shoe place where I got two sandals made for me and some church sandals made for Big Sis. It was really neat watching them work. They trace your foot, then take measurements of your foot in three different places, around your big toe, around your ankle. I called Big Sis on FaceTime and we did the measurements over the phone while the lady wrote down the measurements. After measurements we then got to pick the leather color. There were about a million choices. I ended up getting one black sandal and one red sandal made. Big Sis chose this gorgeous silver-ish gold color leather. Holly also got some shoes and boots made, and we all love love love our shoes!

I wasn’t planning on getting a purse, but while in the leather shop, Holly found this adorable purse, and got it. Then Heather had a purse made for her mom and then a super cute turquoise made for her. I found a purse design that I just fell in love with and had them make it in the same red leather as my sandals. Red is my most favorite color, and let me tell you what, the red sandals and the red purse make me very happy.

But the shopping didn’t end there, every single day we found ourselves shopping and shopping some more. We would pick up the clothes we had made, then decide to have something else made while there. I ended up getting some ties made for Kevin and Little Monster. Holly and Cori had dresses made for their girls after seeing the dresses Heather picked up for her girls. Each time we went back. We saw the cutest things.

One of my favorite places to go was the night market. The night market was a crazy crowded pedestrian street filled with vendors with souvenirs, trinkets, street food and Hoi An lanterns all lit up. I loved the lanterns. So Much! Lanterns were hung from every building and every store. Every restaurant had a string of lanterns out in front of their store with the store name painted on each lantern. Ever single lantern was lit up filling the streets with vibrant bright colors. It was gorgeous.

I just couldn’t get enough of the lanterns. We found out that we could do a lantern making class, so we excitedly made an appointment and made our very own lanterns. Poor Corianne was feeling super awful sick (come to find out after we got home that she had a bad case of strep throat the entire time, and was an amazing trouper) so she ended up going back to the villas during the lantern making class. We felt so bad that she missed it.

We found Phuoc Dong Handicrafts and were able to make our lanterns sitting at a small table with tiny chairs on the side of the shop. We were given the bamboo skeleton of the lantern and learned that the shop keeper has been doing this her entire life and her family has been lantern makers for generations. Her father and husband are the ones who had make the skeletons.

After picking out our shape and size, we then got to pick our fabric. We all choose different solid silk fabrics. The fabric is then glued to the skeleton in small sections using what smelled just like rubber cement. I was taken back to my schools days by the smell of the glue and we all reminisced about rubber cement and peeling it off our hands.

The sections has to be pulled super tight to fit just right on the skeleton bamboo, and the shop keeper made sure they were all perfect.

Once the lanterns were done, we were able to pick the color of strings and bead that hung from the bottom. I ended up doing a silver lantern with black string and a black bead. When we were all done we got pictures with our beautiful hand made lanterns and the shop keeper. It took about an hour and a half to make the lanterns from start to finish. The work involved in making these lanterns made me appreciate their beauty even more.

So back to the Night Market! These amazing lanterns were everywhere in the night market and I was in love. I kept buying lanterns, and going back and buying more. They were about $3.00-$6.00 a lantern depending on the size and material. Holly, Cori and Heather couldn’t believe it when I kept going back to the lantern shops and returning with another lantern. They kept teasing that I wouldn’t be able to fit them in my luggage with all the other shopping we did. I didn’t mind, because I knew I would never find anything like these lanterns anywhere in the world but here.

We continued walking around the Night Market and had some amazing street food. They had these Nutella Banana Rotis, Paper Pizza, and ice cream rolls that were simple delicious. I just couldn’t get enough of the Rotis. It was like a crepe filled with bananas and Nutella, except it tastes more like waffle batter, and much more greasy. They were super flat and just delicious.

The street food had crazy stuff like fried frogs, octopus, lobsters and crazy seafood on a stick. It was fun to see it all lined on the street. It was bonus if we saw someone buy one and eat it.

Another “shopping” thing we did almost everyday was find a massage place and get feet massages. There were ladies everywhere trying to get clients for massages, and we took full advantage of that. We got massages pretty much every day. The best part was that it cost less then $8.00 for an hour foot massage. It was heavenly! They would do this crazy toe popping thing that felt so weird. After walking all day, it was definitely something we got very spoiled in doing, and it was so nice to get a massage for so cheap, but done so well.

I almost forgot about the fruit! Oh the glorious and mouth watering fruit! Delicious and crazy good fruit was everywhere. One of the first things we did on the first day was stop at a fruit stand and buy fruit, all kinds of fruit to taste and try, some we hadn’t ever seen before. But everyone’s favorite was the mangos. We had the store keeper cut them right there, and just ate them as we walked. They were so good I was licking the inside of the peel to get every last drop. I couldn’t get enough of the mangos or the pineapple, it was picked to perfection and each one tasted tantalizing. Oh blessed fruit, how I miss you in Korea!