Today we went to a place called The Diner for breakfast. The food and service was really good, my only complaint would be that they charged Nicole 2 pounds for "still water" (without explaining that she would be charged because it wasn't "tap water") and they charged her 40 pence for extra syrup without telling her that would be an extra charge, which seems pretty ridiculous to me. (Sorry for the blurry photo, the lighting was really bad!)
But otherwise, the waitresses were extremely nice, and the food was delicious! I got a strawberry malt milkshake (I've never had a malt milkshake before) and it was AMAZING.
Nicole and our delicious food!
It was a really cute place with a very obvious inspiration in the decor.
Our waitress had THE CUTEST HAIR COLOR. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was the cutest baby pink and lavender color I've ever seen! She was kind of embarrassed when I asked if we could take a picture of her hair so she asked if she could cover her face, haha. We have noticed that colored hair is a lot more common (and nicely done) in London.
After our delicious breakfast, we did some shopping! This was a really interesting store with some really cute, weird stuff. I wanted the overalls but they were 109 pounds!!! Crazy!
We wandered into Kingly Court Market (I think that's what it was called), and found some adorable boutiques! I bought some really cute stuff!
Then we were walking down Carnaby and these people asked us if we wanted to enter a contest to win a trip to France or something, and all we had to do was put on this stuff and get our photo taken. It looks like we were being a lot serious than we actually were because this was taken between poses. It was pretty hilarious.
Then we wandered around and found Hamley's Toy Store, which I had been told was one of the biggest toy stores in the world? It was really crowded so we didn't stay long and ended up going back to the hotel shortly after to rest up for the walking tour!!
And so the tour began! We first went to Cecil Court, believed to be JK Rowling's inspiration for Diagon Alley. The man talking was our fantastic tour guide, Yuki. He was awesome.
This is apparently one of the biggest magic bookstores (a bookstore that carries books whose subjects involve magic) in the world.
This is where the phone booth for the visitors entrance to the Ministry of Magic!
http://www.padfootsportkey.us/mom/images/Ministry_Visitors_Entrance.jpg
And Nicole standing next to where, in the latest movie, the Trio pulls in the unconscious bodies of the three Ministry workers in order to change into them using the Polyjuice Potion!
Harry Potter, OH MY!
Then we went on a boat on the Thames to get to London Bridge. On the way, I took some pretty neat photos through the dirty window!
Spooooky!
Blackfriars Bridge, I believe, is where the Knight Bus squeezed through traffic in the Prizoner of Azkaban film.
Millennium Bridge, which the Death Eaters destroyed in the Half Blood Prince.
In Borough Market on our way to the next location.
This is where the Leaky Cauldron was located in the Prizoner of Azkaban! See the photo below for details.
Yep, details.
And then, as a surprise, we got to see Bridget Jones' house! He asked the group what romantic comedy this was featured in and I guessed right on my first try!
Bridget's house!
And that's the restaurant/glass wall that Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver fell through during their fight!
Tower Bridge!
The Monument!
I don't know why I thought this was so amusing, but I did. And then a couple walked into my picture and made it better.
Anyway, back to Harry Potter! This is the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron in the first film!
Despite what it looks like, there is no disaster occurring in the sky. I just so happened to capture this woman hugging her daughter, looking slightly frightened, haha!
The evidence!
Pretty old buildings with a ridiculous pink stretch limo. Someone pointed out that it was actually an American car (the driver was on the left). Go figure.
Such a beautiful area!
So cool!
GRINGOTTS. Apparently it's haunted by the ghost of an old lady who is looking for her brother...SPOOKY!
When they were going to King's Cross for the end of the tour, we decided to break off since we already did that and we were hungry! So we got on the tube and went back to Spaghetti House, which was delicious.
Then I realized I had no tourist-y picture of me in front of Trafalgar Square, so Nicole kindly took one for me.
Also this is the lobby of our hotel. SO FANCY!
And, finally, us on the elevator.
After resting for a bit, we went out and I got caramel gelato from Gino Gelato and Nicole got a vanilla cupcake from Sweet Couture Cake Boutique! Both were fantastic!
Tomorrow we're going to do some last minute shopping before we have to leave, but I will try to take a few more pictures so that I can at least make a small post tomorrow night when I get back to NY! Goodbye for now!
