Author: Ed Hovorka

We took Carrie to an ‘afternoon tea’. None of us are fancy people so we looked at the waiters funny when they wanted to take our coats and when they put the napkins on our laps for us. You get little finger sandwiches and pastries with your tea. I don’t know the first thing about tea but I drank it anyway. This weekend was not about me. I’m sure the wait staff was in the back making fun of or cursing the stupid Americans.

---

The mound of pastries

---

Can’t take me nowhere. I swear the teapot was defective and leaked that big stain on the tablecloth.

---

Saturday we went to the Warner Bros. Harry Potter studio tour. The site is about 20 minutes outside London and is the location where filming actually took place. They’ve turned the sets into a museum/attraction and are making a fortune. The tour is mostly self guided. We spent 3.5 hours on the tour, and easily 5 hours on site, waiting to get in and browsing the gift shop. If you’re a Harry Potter fan and near London, this is a must see. Me, I thought it was impressive and interesting to see the sets and movie magic. Denise and Carrie  enjoyed it, Denise said it exceeded her expectations, and she expected a lot.

The place was packed. It’s been open a year now, but we did go on a Saturday.  Notice the snow on the roof? That’s not fake. It snowed in London.

Got to the Venice airport without any problems, even with the transit strike. Italy’s version of TSA agents are even more surly than the ones at home.  Flight left about 15 minutes late. Got to London OK. Had dinner with Carrie at Wahaca (their misspelling not mine).

Friday we head back to London. Getting to the Venice airport should be interesting as there’s going to be a 24 hour transit strike. In Italy, they announce strikes like this well in advance. We knew about this one before we left home. There is a private water shuttle to the airport that we will take. Not how we hoped to get there, and costs about €3 more, but at least it should be operating.  Fingers crossed.

Dinner was at Pizzeria Vesuvio. Best pizza on this trip in Italy. Denise thought she was ordering a pizza with different toppings. That’s what she got just not  mixed together as expected.