Our holiday away this year started with the Bank Holiday weekend in the London area, although we didn't actually go anywhere near the city. We drove up to Wokingham on the Friday to stay with Louise and Ian in thier new house. Thanks to the Bank Holiday traffic we arrived later than anticipated and this is us having a very late, but very nice barbeque in thier back garden.
On Saturday it was off to Thorpe Park in the rain. We arrived just as the park was opening despite getting lost because the SatNav refused to plan a route to the park. The weather kept some of the crowds away and Carl and the girls didn't have to wait very long for most of the rides all morning. Saw broke down while they were in the queue, although the staff kept announcing that it was shutting for routine maintenance (they weren't fooling anyone), that was the longest wait. Shortly after that we took an early lunch and were glad we had because we'd just sat down with our food when the heavens opened and most of the rest of the crowds at the park piled in after us. When it looked like it was about to stop we nipped out quick and headed for Swarm where there was only a 20min wait instead of the 50mins it had been all morning. The girls rode twice. The only ride I went on was Loggers Leap, and as we were getting on that it began pelting it down with rain again, so not only did I get wet from the ride (they made me sit in the front) I got wet from the rain too. All the other wet rides I might have gone on had massive queues after that so at about 3 o'clock we decided we'd had enough and headed off for our hotel.
Sunday was Harry Potter day, although we had to wait until 4 o'clock to go in. We went in with Beth, Andrew and Francis. Before that we did some shopping in Luton. The studio tour was great. They say it takes about three hours and they're right. There is so much to see. The girls got passports which they collected stamps in and spent ages looking for snitches in different areas of the studios. Ellie took over 250 photos.
My favourite bit was Diagon Alley. I also like the outdoor bit where we all sat and enjoyed a butterbeer, just like the ones in America. There is an area half way round where you can have your photo taken in front of a green screen. Ellie had hers taken on a broom and me and Caitlin had ours in the flying car. At the end of the tour we spent an hour in the shop! It had exactly the same stuff in as in Universal Studios. Ellie bought a wand, Caitlin bought a bag, and I bought a notebook for me and t-shirt for Adrienne. Then it was back to the hotel for dinner and an early night before our very early Monday morning.
