I found a Harry Potter Walking Tour we could take using our Chase credit card points. So we booked! We met at the Palace Theater where The Cursed Child is playing on the West End. I have tried to get tickets since January and haven’t succeeded yet. Keeping my fingers crossed. We all got sorted into houses and then points were awarded to the different houses for answering Harry Potter trivia questions. Halle answered the final question that won her house, Ravenclaw, the tour cup. I got Slytherin and swapped with Blake for Hufflepuff. Josh and Rusty got Gryffindor.
We walked down Charing Cross Road to a couple of cute alleyways that are said to have inspired Diagon Alley. Our favorite Alley was one that got more narrow and more narrow as you made your way through.
We saw the exterior of the Ministry of Magic and the spot where Harry, Ron and Hermione used Polyjuice potion so they could sneak in.
We went through Trafalgar Square, where the Death Eaters wreaked havoc on their way to kidnap Olivander.
We took the Tube over to Millennium Bridge, which the Death Eaters destroyed in the 6th movie. Blake and I loved spotting the little monsters painted on the bridge.
And then to Borough Market where the Nigh Bus zoomed by. And also, where they filmed the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Which looks nothing like the final rendering in the movie 🙂
The tour was running really long and we already had reservations for our Thames Monsta cruise and we needed to leave before Platform 9 3/4. Halle, REALLY REALLY wanted to stay and finish the tour. She said she could finish and then just go back to the apartment. I gave her my phone with Google Maps, she had her Oyster card and we said we’d see her in a few hours. I was a little nervous leaving her to navigate the tube by herself, but I was pretty sure she could do it. And worse came to worse, she could always just park herself with a book and we could use Find iPhone to come and get her. We kissed her goodbye and off she went!
We had a few extra minutes in Borough Market and we stumbled on this amazingness. It was so delicious. Although it put me in a dairy coma for about 24 hours. It probably wasn’t worth the brain fog, but I couldn’t resist!
Now for the Thames Monsta. THIS WAS SO FUN! Anton, our Airbnb host, gifted us this cruise because we had helped him get into an airbnb program with our booking.
We started out just putting along and seeing the sights. Then, once we got past Tower Bridge, we put the pedal to the metal! They blasted rock music and we FLEW along the water. The boys were in heaven. Everyone was laughing and bouncing along. We loved taking selfies of our windblown hair.
Our guide was so funny and high energy. When we’d go under the bridges he’d turn the music up and dance around and wave to all the people on the bridges. It was over way too soon!
We got some really fun shots of Tower Bridge and Houses of Parliament on our way back to the dock. The boys deem this one of their favorite things we’ve done! 
Big Ben is under construction for the next 4 years and it’s hard to get a glimpse of the clock face. We were glad to catch this one from the water! 
And we got a text from Halle saying she’d arrived safe and sound at the apartment. She said the line for a picture at Platform 9 3/4 was 1.5 hours long! So she didn’t wait.
If she can successfully navigate a city, I feel like my parenting job is complete 🙂
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