This morning we got up early enough to grab some breakfast before we found our spot in front of Buckingham Palace to take in the changing of the guard.  We went to a little restaurant around the corner from the hotel called the Giraffe, here we got our proper english breakfast, eggs, toast, ham, sausage, hashbrowns and beans.

When we got to Buckingham palace there was a crowd already starting to form.  The changing of the guard starts at 11:00am and we got there around 9:30 so we could get our spot, all the spots at the gate directly in front of the palace were taken so we found a spot on the right side of the palace where we could see the entire area in front of Buckingham.  

At about 10:30 we started to see some of the mounted guards appear, we also saw a number of mounted metro police officers patrolling the area.  Then drums were heard, followed by the first band which entered the grounds in front of the palace, following them was the first regiment of guards.  The band and guards were at the far end fo the of the grounds.

The second band and regiment then entered the grounds this time they were at our end of of the grounds so we got a really good look at them.  Once the two regiments, were in position the second band to arrive moved to the center of the grounds and played, first a traditional tune very much what you would expect to be played in front of Buckingham palace, then they played themes from James Bond movies.  The entire ceremony took about 30 to 35 minutes.

After the changing of the guards we were off to the Warner Bothers studios just out side of London to see the studio tour of Making of Harry Potter.  We took a bus out to the site, we had to because the tour company that we booked the tour from basically has a monopoly on the tickets to enter the site.  Now the bus ride was a bit lack luster, the operators were not very forthcoming with information and we really didn't know what was going on, things like when do we get our tickets, and why are we making additional stops in the city to pick up more people.  We did get to the studio, and they did hand out tickets.

The studio was really, really impressive.  The tour started with a quick walk through of the movie posters and some of the props from the movies, then with a video with the main characters describing how they were treated (which was well) and how over the span of 10 years the entire crew and cast became a very large family.

Then we were on our own, the tour started with us entering the main hall, the actual main hall that was used in all the movies, it was amazing.  From there we entered into a larger space where they had on display the sets for Haggreds Layer, Dumbeldores Office, and many other parts of Hogwarts.  The detail was perfect, impressive, it was almost too much to take in.  As we made our way through the tour we were treated to how the special effect were done, the makeup and costumes were put together to make these movies look absolutely perfect.

The effort that went into making these was astounding.  There were some items on display outside, like the house we first see Harry living with his uncle and aunt, the boy under the stairs.  We were able to enter the house, it had the scene where the letters to Harry are flooding the house.

Some of the sets we already saw at Universal Studios but others were new to us.  We finished the tour with a visit to the gift shop then a treat before getting on the bus to get back to London.

Tomorrow we go out to Windor to see the palace, then perhaps some shopping.