London Take 4 with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Mario and I decided to head to London for a quick weekend getaway. This makes trip # 4 to London, I do enjoy visiting London! Since we left Stuttgart on a 8:20pm flight, we decided to stay at the Courtyard at Gatwick Airport.  ​

The next morning, we took the Gatwick Express into London arriving at Victoria Station. I bought our tickets the previous week using the Gatwick Express app. You can also buy your tickets at the airport, either way a pretty easy process. When we arrive at Victoria Station, we reload our Oyster cards, which is a payment card used for the Tube. It looks like a plastic credit card and all you need to do is scan it when riding the Tube. Using the oyster card saves you money and is so convenient, you don't have to worry about getting a ticket every time you ride the Tube. From there we took the Tube to the London Bridge station and walk about 15 minutes to our hotel. On the way we saw the Shard. We were able to check in, so we dropped off our stuff. We were staying in a Residence Inn, another Marriott hotel, so we had a small kitchen which would helped with the cost of food. We walked a few blocks to the grocery store and picked up a few things. Then we headed to the British Museum to explore. I have been to the museum previously but Mario hadn't, so I wanted to show him. It still surprises me that it is free to visit. 

The next day, we had tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the afternoon. So we had the morning to explore and see more of London. We walked along the river and saw Cleopatra's Needle.
Then headed to the Scotland Place which is where the Ministry of Magic was located in the Harry Potter movies. They were fixing the building, so I didn't get the best pictures.

 From there we headed to Chipotle which was two blocks away from the Palace Theatre, which is where we would be seeing the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The play is broken into two parts, which can be seen on the same day or tow consecutive days. Our time only permitted to see both parts on the same day. Part 1 started at 2pm and Part 2 started at 7:30pm. Each part of about 2 hrs and 40 mins. Between the two parts we had time to grab some dinner. I ordered the tickets last minute so there were limited seats left. Mario and I scored seats 4 rows from the stage, which were super expensive, but totally worth the money! The play was AWESOME! For any of you Harry Potter fans, it is definitely a must see!

The next day, we explored the Royal Observatory which is located in Greenwich.The Royal Observatory is home to the Prime Meridian. Tickets were pricy but was really cool to stand on the Prime Meridian. While walking around we saw the Cutty Shark which was a ship used to speed tea from Asia to Victorian Britain. After eating lunch, we headed back to the hotel.  Then we checked out and took the train back to Gatwick airport. We had an early morning flight the next morning, so we spent the night at the Courtyard again. From the hotel to the airport was a 10 minute walk. Another great trip in the books!