Top Three Harry Potter Sites

Top Three Harry Potter Sites

Stephanie knows nothing about Harry Potter. Daniel and I happen to like Harry Potter a whole lot, but Amie is almost over-the top in her HP love.  Being in England brought us into close proximity to all of the filming locations for the Harry Potter movies.  We visited a few and here are the best::

3) Christ Church College in Oxford provided interior locations for the castle corridors during the first two movies. Also, its still-used dining hall provided inspiration for Hogwarts' own Great Hall (and Winthrop's own McBryde Hall, coincidentally).  It definitely felt like we were in Hogwarts!

Here we climb the stairs to the great hall, just like the first years did in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

2) Divinity School at the Bodleian Library

If you take the tour at the Bodleian Library, your first stop is the former Divinity School lecture hall. It was here that students for hundreds of years defended themselves during exams.  It's also here that scenes were filmed for Hogwarts' infirmary and the dance class taught by McGonagall before the Yule Ball in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The ceilings were magnificent. Stephanie got me gazing.

1) The Bodleian Library

Okay, so I already told most of what I know about the Bodleian Library in Monday's post, but it was also used as a backdrop for the Hogwarts library in several Harry Potter movies.  In the first movie, Harry enters the restricted section of the library and stood exactly where we were standing. Alas, no pictures were allowed for the protection of the 500-year-old books.

PS We also went to the millennium bridge, a walking bridge that is destroyed by Death Eaters in the sixth movie and to Platform 9 and 3/4 in King's Cross station, which is where Harry boards the Hogwarts Express each year.  While the bridge was cool, it doesn't really stand out as Harry landmark. Platform 9 and 3/4 would've been pretty exciting if it hadn't been a fake brick wall wedged somewhere off to the side of platform 8.  Here are pics of those.