This
was the day that G had been looking forward to – our visit to the Harry Potter
Studios.
We
started with a Continental breakfast in the hotel club lounge, before grabbing
a taxi to Euston station. We easily
caught the train to Watford Junction, which took around 15 minutes from memory. It was then a few minutes wait for the
shuttle bus to the studios, which were beautifully decorated for Christmas.
I am
not such a Harry Potter fan as G and our children, but I did still enjoy the
stories. I wasn’t particularly looking
forward to wasting a precious London day on this, but I really did enjoy
it. It was very well done and a fun day
all around.
We
grabbed a very basic lunch in the cafeteria at the Studios, and G tried a
butterbeer. I had a white wine instead. We caught the shuttle back to the station and
the train back to Euston.
Seeing
as we were so close, we popped into The British Library. We both really, really enjoyed this,
especially seeing the Magna Carta as well as other treasures such as originally
written Beatles lyrics and much more.
I was
still suffering from a scratchy throat, but we decided to head for Oxford
Street as I was looking for a more attractive warm coat in the sales. Oxford Street was a total madhouse. We went straight to Primark, where they had
the exact type of coat that I wanted, but sadly not in my size. We wandered through a few other stores, but
couldn’t find anything that fitted that I liked in my price range. We decided to concentrate on the amazing
Christmas lights of Oxford and Regent Street before heading back to the hotel
to meet S and L.
Catching
the tube at Oxford Street station on a Friday evening after work was an
experience – I have never seen such crowds.
We stopped for a quick drink in a nice pub near Trafalgar Square before
getting the bus back to Apex Temple Court.
By
the time we met S and L in the club lounge, I was starting to lose my
voice. We had a couple of glasses of
wine and wandered down Fleet Street to Cote Brasserie where I ate Beef Bourgignon
followed by Crème Brulee. It was really
very good, and had ample vegetarian options for L, all at a reasonable price.
2023-09-23