My European Adventure - The Harry Potter Sets

Here we go into the incredible world of Harry Potter!  I know, I know!!! We are a bunch of nerds, but not ashamed nerds, O.K.?!

Awww.....  Isn't that sweet?  Dudley's family pictures?

 And who could forget the cupboard under the stairs where Harry slept at night?  My dad has affectionate feelings for this cupboard since his brother put his room under the stairs when he returned home from his mission!

 This part was pretty cool!  You actually get to walk through these massive doors into the great hall!

 Here is the great hall!  The detail that went into these sets was amazing.  Most of the detail you wouldn't even see on film, but they felt that it was important.

 Here is the fireplace in the Great Hall.

 This is one of those details I was telling you about.  This inside the fireplace.  You wouldn't even see it in the movie, because a fire would be burning!

 These are some of the amazing treats at Hogwarts!

 This is one of the beds in the boys dormitory.  The beds were actually very short and they had issues with that as the boys "grew up."

 This is a better shot of the dormitory.  The stove in the center of the room was actually brought back from France.  Set decorator Stephenie McMillan used this stove while working on the film Chocolat and brought it back with her for the Harry Potter series.

 This is the fireplace in the common room.

 Here is the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

 And the Hogwarts Bridge

 Here is Hagrids hut.  Sorry about the lighting.  It was not an ideal place to take pictures.  The lighting was either really orange or really blue.

 This is inside the burrow.  I've decided that I want a clock like this in my house.  I heard that there is some sort of design on pinterest that links up to the iphones of those you want to keep track of!  WHAT??!!  So cool!  Totally going to look into that!

 And I LOVED all the mismatched chairs at the Weasley's table!  Again, I want to do this!

 I was completely disturbed by this!  The level of detail that went to each person being crushed by this massive stone was CRAZY!!

 Inside the Ministry of Magic.  It was designed to resemble the subways in London.

 This is Umbridges' office.  Now anyone that knows me knows I love the color pink, but this was a bit much for me!

 Look!  We are standing outside number 4 Privet Drive!

 The next 2 pictures are of The Potters Cottage in Godrics Hollow

 This is where James and Lily Potter are murdered by Voldemort.  Look how sad we are!

 And here we are at Diagon Ally.  Do you see the Weasley's shop towards the end?  Oh and again, please excuse the lighting.  Super blue!

 Gringotts Bank

 There were so many other stores that I never really took notice of, but they were all there in all of their amazing detail!

 Ollivanders Wand Shop

 Check out the Puking Pastilles.  The puke was actually moving to make it look like he was actually throwing up!

 Flourish and Blotts

 And last but certainly not least . . .  HOGWARTS.   This is the actually model they used for the exterior shots.  Again weird lighting.  In here it would go from these night time shots with blue lighting and then fade to orange which was supposed to make it look like day time.  It just looked like orange lighting to me, but what do I know?

 That was the end of the Harry Potter studio tour.  Well, we did go shopping after but I was so caught up in the goodies I wanted to buy and the strategy I would have to develop to get said goodies home that I didn't take any pictures of that experience.  Oh well!