Harry Potter: Travel WizardGuess who’s having the best week ever? You are, if, like me, you’re a Harry Potter fan. The fifth Potter movie opens today, and my pre-ordered copy of the final book will arrive on July 21.
I don’t care as much for the witches and warlocks as I do the backdrops: the sky-high Gothic halls of Hogwarts School, the haunting (sometimes talking) landscapes, the oh-so-British town of Hogsmeade (specifically, the butterbeer served there). And like any determined traveler, I won’t let the fact that these places are fictional stop me from visiting them.
Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member Glamazon22.
I’ve already sat under Hogwarts’ Sorting Hat at the Warner Bros. Museum in Los Angeles, mostly because my friend works on the studio’s lot and I’ve had some time to kill there (alas, Brad Pitt wasn’t filming those days). Harry Potter-related travel goes way beyond wax figures from the movies, though--it’s big business in Britain, with the number of Harry pilgrims peaking around the release dates of the books and movies.
The most popular book locations, and their movie stand-ins, are places even a Muggle could love. It might take a J.K. Rowling devotee to appreciate Harry’s honorary platform at London’s King’s Cross Station, but a campus crawl of film locale Oxford University would impress anyone, super-fan or not. For a more comprehensive itinerary, the British Tourist Authority locates Potter sites for Potter-ites on its Storybook England map. Or, for a quick layover (or on-the-sly) tour, simply hail a Harry taxi.
If Rowling’s fictional world really is your thing, then soon you’ll really be able to see it come to life: Universal Orlando Resort will unveil its Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in late 2009. Finally, we’ll be able to whiz through the air like the Hogwarts kids. The only question is whether it will be via Harry’s broomstick or that flying Ford. And if we exhaust the Potter tourism possibilities between now and then, well, we can always follow Frodo to Middle Earth.
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Comments
What school were you assigned to by the sorting hat?
Confession: I've been there (Warner Bros. Studios) and done that (sat under the Sorting Hat) several times. Truthfully, I don't think the hat stuck to its guns each time, but I'm going to have to go with Gryffindor.