Harry Potter, Driving & Friends

Yesterday morning we had a black cab tour around some of the sites that they used for filming Harry Potter. We were the only ones, so we got the undivided attention of our guide. We saw platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross, Diagon Ally at Leadenhall Market, Gringotts Bank which is actually in Australia house, the Ministry of Magic, the Leaky cauldron which they filmed in several different locations in different movies and the millennium bridge that is destroyed in one of the later movies in a scene with deatheaters and a spot where they filmed the night bus squeezed in between two red double decker buses. It was a really good tour and the guide had a DVD with him that he would show us a scene from the movies in conjunction with the site where we were. Highly recommend it! In the afternoon I picked up a rental car from Victoria Coach Station (central London). Needless to say it was incredibly stressful driving, trying to go in the right direction and trying to be in the correct lane in 4 lane squares! All in an unfamiliar manual car! I was so pleased once I'd got to Fulham and recognized where I was and it was even better once we were over the river and traffic was no longer nose to nose. From here on driving should be much easier as we are heading south west towards Stonehenge. Last night we caught up with friends and children from Dundonald School where I used to teach. I was so impressed with the gorgeous 16 year olds who came to visit with me. I'd taught them as 5 year olds. Thank you Alice, Felicity, Ewan, Charlie, Phoebe for making the time to call in. It was so lovely to see their Mum's again too. Anne, Sue, Carol, Dee, Susan and Annabel- I just loved meeting you again. Special thanks to Annabel and David for hosting us all last night and for gathering everyone together. Diana, Scott, Emma and Nicole - we thought of you! Annabel and Anne had even found our old class photo! For the next few days we will be out of London, seeing what we find, staying where we please. We'll be in touch as we can. We are back in London from Sunday night. Love to you all, Deb & Finn