Harry Potter Studio Tour

Whether you’re a Harry Potter fan or not the studio tour is definitely worth a visit. Seeing the various sets and how the magical story comes to life is an amazing experience. Here are some pictures from our tour…

Outside the studio in Watford

The cupboard under the stairs

The Great Hall

Gryffindor Boys’ Dormitory

Gryffindor Common Room

Potions Classroom

Hagrid’s Hut

My favourite set, Dumbledore’s Office

The Chamber of Secrets Door

A Deatheater

Trying out the famous butterbeer

Privet Drive

Me and Hagrid, the half giant

Diagon Alley

Hogwarts Castle

Milan and Rome

We’ve just spent 4 days in Italy, a day in Milan and 3 in Rome. I feel that Milan has less to offer than some of the other cities like Florence and Venice which we visited last year. Maybe that’s because the rain made our experience of walking around Milan uncomfortable… I’m not sure. We still saw as much as we could though. Supper was at a restaurant, Rosso Mattone, just a few metres from our hotel. They make HUGE pizzas and we had ordered one each! The pizza with grana and truffle oil was delicious and was the highlight of Milan for me…

Milan Cathedral (Duomo), one of the largest in the world

Inside Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, a shopping mall

Sforza Castle

Tiramisu and coffee

Rome was amazing, to say the least, even though we’d been there before. You see pieces of ancient roman buildings among modern ones and can’t help but awe at this majestic city and its history.

Along with visiting sights we’d been to before this time we climbed the Spanish Steps, visited the Pantheon and even came back with a few paintings from Piazza Navona. Palatine Hill, we discovered, was like a little city on its own with palaces, a stadium, gardens and baths and was home to several emperors… On one side of the hill is Circus Maximus which is not much more than grass now but was once spectacular and used for chariot racing (the chariot race scene in Ben Hur was filmed here) and on the other side is the Roman Forum which houses the ruins of ancient government buildings.

Castel Sant ‘Angelo

Spanish Steps

The Pantheon

Inside the Pantheon

Fountain at Piazza Navona

Paintings at Piazza Navona

On Palatine Hill, Colosseum in the background

Severan Arcades on Palatine Hill

The Roman Forum

Rome is a beautiful city and I would definitely visit it again to see the Colosseum, the Vittorio Emanuele Monument, the Trevi Fountain, everything basically and to have more Italian gelato and delicious pizza and pasta.

Pizza

The Colosseum

Inside the Colosseum

The stunning Vittorio Emanuele Monument

The Trevi Fountain

Amsterdam for a day

It’s amazing that a flight between London and Amsterdam is as quick as a flight between Durban and Johannesburg… 45/50 minutes. We took advantage of this and spent Saturday in Amsterdam. It’s a beautiful, clean city with canals and tulips everywhere. I really loved the buildings and apartments along the canals.

Tulips

One of many canals

Public transport within the city is by tram which is better than using underground rail as while you are travelling you get to see the city which is sort of a tour in itself…

Tram

At the Cheese Museum we tried amazing flavoured cheeses… pesto, truffle, cumin, chilli, peppadew, Italian herb. I’m sure there are some I’ve forgotten.

The Cheese Museum

The “I Amsterdam” letters were too crowded so we were not able to get a good picture but you can see a bit in the background of the picture below…

I Amsterdam

At Noordermarkt, an organic farmers market

The Heineken Brewery

The Van Gogh museum

A windmill

Inside the boat on the canal cruise

The Palace

Madrid

Spent the weekend in Madrid and we found the city to be lovely, clean, neat and pleasant to walk around. We stayed at Hotel Claridge, an elegant business hotel which, in my opinion, was a steal at just half the price of our hotel in Paris. The hotel is outside the city centre but, as a metro station is just across the street, it was easy for us to travel to the centre and other areas of interest.


We had originally booked the trip because we had tickets for a Madrid Open semi-final match and were hoping to see Novak Djokovic play, which would have worked out if Djokovic managed to progress to the semis. Instead, the semi-final was between Stanislas Wawrinka (Ranked: 10) and Tomas Berdych (Ranked: 6), two really good players, but certainly no Djokovic in my eyes. Both put up a tremendous fight, making it a high-quality match for the fans as the underdog Wawrinka progressed to the final.

Finally tried authentic Spanish tapas, however, choice was limited for me as I don’t eat pork. Spain is a pork-lover’s dream. I did quite like patatas bravas though, which is fried pieces of potato covered in a creamy, spicy tomato sauce. The shrimps with garlic at Restaurant Esteban, http://www.rte-esteban.com, were delicious. Actually, the entire experience at Restaurant Esteban was lovely. It’s a cosy little restaurant and the owner who was our waiter (and speaks English) was welcoming and attentive. Pictures of him and his dad, who opened the restaurant 49 years ago, line the walls and you can tell much love and dedication has gone into this family business…

At Retiro Park

The pond at the park, Monument to Alfonso XII in the background

Monument to Alfonso XII

Puerta de Alcalá

Trying a chorizo hot dog at Mercado De San Miguel

Madrid Cathedral

The Royal Palace

Entering La Caja Mágica

Us at the Manolo Santana stadium

The players in action

Restaurant Esteban on Cava Baja

Relaxing at the hotel

Madrid’s Plaza De España

Santiago Bernabéu stadium, the home of Real Madrid, the world’s richest football club

Wandering Paris

The first Monday in May is a bank holiday in the UK so we took advantage of this and spent the long weekend in Paris. On our previous trip to Paris we crammed a lot of sights and activities into a few days: going up the Eiffel Tower, The Palace of Versailles, The Louvre, a cruise on the Seine, the hop-on hop-off bus tours… This time we just walked around, saw many beautiful buildings, visited patisseries and just experienced the city without having to rush to anywhere. We also managed to have lunch (they were fully booked for dinner) at Bistrotters, http://www.bistrotters.com , which is ranked number 1 on TripAdvisor for restaurants in Paris. They make beautiful food…

Our lunch at Bistrotters

Lemon meringue tart

Gothic architecture of Notre Dame Cathedral

Saint-Jacques Tower

Hôtel de Ville

Arc de Triomphe

Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Jardin des Plantes, botanical garden part of the Museum of Natural History

The Panthéon

Door of the Panthéon

Relaxing at Luxembourg Gardens

Luxembourg Palace

The Eiffel Tower

The Louvre

Galeries Lafayette

Afternoon tea

Afternoon tea is an English tradition that started in the early 1800s as a means to stave off the hunger in anticipation of a late evening meal. Today afternoon tea is enjoyed as an occasional luxury or to celebrate a special event. Since we are in London we felt like indulging in this tea ritual as well. So we did a bit of research on the best places to have an afternoon tea and found Sofitel London St James, one of the hotels which received an Award of Excellence this year from the Tea Guild.

The hotel on a whole is beautiful. Tea, though, is served in the Rose Lounge, a cosy room with just a few tables and for lack of a better word, very pretty decor of florals and pinks. As with all afternoon teas, the menu consisted of finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam and pastries. The actual tea selection was impressive with a variety of blends, from all around the globe. A special touch by the hotel is having a harpist play, enhancing the tranquil atmosphere of the Rose Lounge.

Before going in

Close up of the plaque

The Rose Lounge

Our table

Enjoying my Bihar White tea

Delicious finger sandwiches, raisin, plain and apricot scones warm from the oven

One last pic

The Lion King

Who hasn’t seen or heard of the movie, The Lion King?! It’s become a classic and so has the play. I didn’t see the play when it showed in South Africa but had heard only great reviews. So finally last night we attended the performance at the Lyceum Theatre, where it’s been showing for over a decade! And selling out almost every night too. It was absolutely amazing. The costumes, the choreography, the make-up and the beautiful sets… All of it, amazing. Whoever put this show together had great vision and imagination. Definitely go and see The Lion King the next time the play travels to your part of the world or the next time you find yourself in London 🙂

Obviously, we weren’t allowed to take pictures during the performance, so I just have these to share with you…

Inside the Lyceum Theatre

Quick pic outside after the show

Another busy weekend

On Saturday we started with the Thames River cruise from Greenwich (pronounced Grenich which still baffles me) to Westminster which was definitely worthwhile. Travelling along the river we saw many of the city’s major attractions. The crew also provided the history behind the various points of interest which was a nice touch. Here are some pictures of us in Greenwich before the cruise and then on the boat…

Exploring Greenwich Market…I love markets

Cutty Sark, the fastest ship before steam overtook sail

View of Canary Wharf from Greenwich

The Shard and Tower Bridge in the distance

Tower Bridge

The Gherkin

Dome of St Paul’s

The London Eye

After the boat cruise we walked around Westminster for a bit and then up the road to Trafalgar Square where we happened across The Feast of St George. The atmosphere was great… A band was playing, there were food stalls and celebrity chef demonstrations as well.

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

At Trafalgar Square

Andy Bates making a pie

Sunday was all about the football at White Hart Lane, Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City. (We did, however, catch a glimpse of the London Marathon on the way…) Now, I don’t pretend to know much about football but seeing goals being scored is fun. We were lucky that our seats were perfectly positioned to see all four goals (Tottenham 3-1 Man City). The fans are dedicated and passionate and you can’t help but join in the spirit of it all…

London Marathon runners and spectators

At White Hart Lane

Players warming up

Celebrating Tottenham’s good fortune

Wish list

Hi Readers,

As promised, here are the pieces I’ve put on my wish list this week…

Lace top, Mango £34.99

This lace is so pretty and elegant.

White ankle length trousers, H&M £14.99

I think these would look great with a pair of white heels, which I have yet to obtain…

Polka dot dress, H&M £12.99

I’m drawn to polka dots, as you know 🙂

Happy weekend,
Alex

A cupcake day

Yesterday I went to West Molesey to visit family… It was nice to get out of the city for a bit and spend the day relaxing, chatting with Halima and playing with my niece, Mika. Halima and I also baked cupcakes! Well, first we made a batch of red velvets that went horribly wrong so we binned them. Then whipped up some foolproof vanilla cupcakes instead…

Light and fluffy vanilla cupcakes

Decorating with chocolate

The finished products