Last week we had to celebrate something: 20 years of Harry Potter! As some of you know I am an extremely huge Harry Potter fan. Harry, Hermione and Ron accompanied me since I was a teenager and I am so so grateful that Joanne K. Rowling invented this creative, colourful and amazing Hogwarts world. For me it’s not a miracle that children who read Harry Potter books are tolerant of minorities.
Back in Germany I knew that there was something like a Harry Potter studio tour near London but forgot it due to all the stress of our relocation. But not my smart husband: On my birthday table in January I found a gift voucher for the Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour. Unfortunately it was not that easy to book the tickets within the near future – the earliest date available were in May. A long long time to wait…
But fortunately the studio tour is not the only way to come closer to the Harry Potter adventures. In spring we decided to travel to the Cotswolds (an area which is called ‘The Heart of England’ and shall be the most beautiful part of England. It is not [–> Lake District], but that’s another story). Because the weather was quite… hm… English, we went to Gloucester the one day to visit the small town. I knew Gloucester only because I’ve read some historical novels about the medieval England where the former Duke of Gloucester and later Richard III didn’t cut a good figure (this is the king whose mortal remains where found under a car park in Leicester some years ago. Which tells everything about his popularity). I was a bit disappointed when the tour giude told me that Richard III probably never walked through the streets of the town. But the guide had another surprise which led me to forget this little disenchantment: Gloucester Cathredral, where some important scenes of the Harry Potter movies were taken.
No question that we had to rush to the cathedral immediately to visit every square millimetre where Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint had set their foot on. And yes, I felt a bit like a Gryffindor walking through the aisle of Gloucester cathedral and worrying if the basilisk appears at the next corner. Fortunately it didn’t but I would have given a lot to meet Moaning Myrtle in the bathroom…
And here are some impressions of our first (little) Harry Potter adventure (don’t be afraid: this is not a Harry Potter series of seven books – we will only have another ‘Part 2’):
Two years in London 