A Very Potter Pilgrimage

So I don't know if you've heard, but I've been stalking the Chosen One. Here's what I got:

Let's start at......

Platform 9 3/4

Sadly anti-climatic to be honest. Kings Cross is the underground/ train station about 5 minutes from where I live, but though I go there pretty much everyday, I didn't actually try to find Platform 9 3/4 until Little Sarah visited at the end of April. They're doing a ton of construction on Kings Cross, though, (to get things spiffy for the Olympics) so platforms 8 and 9 were inaccessible. However, I knew there was a way to get to the platform because I had heard about other people seeing it even with construction going on. Sarah and I decided to go ask at Information, since it would be silly to come all the way to London and not see it. I approached the man at the desk feeling like an idiot.
         "Excuse me, sir," I said. "I have kind of a stupid question..."
         "Platform 9 3/4 is down that way. Turn left at the bike rack."
         That obvious, huh?
         Anyway, what they had done was put up a temporary Platform 9 3/4 which means it's just a plastic picture of a brick wall in a little nook. Sad days. They actually moved it now so it's outside of the station, probably in hopes of decreasing the urge of the staff to punch tourists in the faces.

Diagon Alley
















Location: Leadenhall Market. I don't think they actually filmed here, but it was part of the inspiration for how they made Diagon Alley in the movies. I was hoping to buy my favourite sister something snazzy here (so I could say I bought something for her from Diagon Alley, thus making it the coolest souvenir ever) but it was more commercialized that I expected. It was definitely more magical from a distance.

Never fear!! Not everything was lame!!

The Great Hall and staircase

Oxford was used for a lot of Harry Potter filming including the library in the first film (we couldn't get in, though, because it was actually being used by students when we visited), the Great Hall, and the entrance staircase,
 

This was the most legit part of my pilgrimage. Especially as I stood in the stairwell in awe and someone started whistling the Harry Potter theme song down below.




Speaking of cool staircases, I can't find a picture from a movie, but you know you've seen this before:

It's in St. Paul's Cathedral and used as the spiral staircase coming from Trelawney's tower, and I think possibly in the fourth film when Neville is standing by the stained glass window after Moody teaches the class about unforgivable curses.

I was hoping to stumble upon Hogwarts when I was in Scotland, but alas, Alnwick Castle was nowhere near Edinburgh (where I was) and even though I would have loved to take a train specifically to go on Wizarding Day when people at the castle offer flying lessons (I'm not sure how) and the option to 'make-you-own-wand,' (I'd rather have Ollivander do it, thanks) circumstance didn't allow. If only I had a hippogriff...

I did see this though:

Cool, huh?

And last of all, Harry Potter himself when I ran into him at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

Magical.

Yours nerdily,
S.M Kosch