"Yer a Wizard Ellie"

This Easter holiday has been amazing for days out. First my brilliant foody trip out last week, and today a wonderfully-wizarding-world-orientated day in London with one of my bestest friends. We hadn't seen each other in what felt like 658 years (although, realistically, it was in January we last met up) so we decided to do something special. At 10:01, we hopped on a train to Kings Cross. 

Upon arriving we did the mandatory thing for any Harry Potter fan at Kings Cross station: visit the 9 and 3/4 shop. We had to queue to get in, and it was jam-packed inside, so our peruse was cut fairly short and nothing was bought. But it was a different story over in Soho; after a nice little walk through China Town, we ended up at the House of MinaLima. My friend that I was with let me know about this gem of a place, which exhibits the graphic prints and designs the illustrators at MinaLima worked on for the Harry Potter franchise, including Fantastic Beasts, all shown across four beautiful and hugely exciting floors. I've always loved the artwork and graphics in the series, especially the 1920s inspired work in Fantastic Beasts, so I loved seeing it spread out in such an Instagram-able way. They have also done illustrations for special copies of Beauty and The Beast, The Jungle Book and Peter Pan, the first of which I helped myself to, alongside a cute notecard with the Advanced Potion-Making textbook from Half-Blood Prince on it (which I'll link a pic of here if you wanna see it) which I've popped in a frame on my dressing table. I was totally in my element. 

 That concluded our wizarding antics for one day, but a fab day out and about was still to be had. After some mocktails and a delish halloumi burger at my fave restaurant Chiquito, a little bit of London sight-seeing didn't go amiss at Trafalgar Square...

And after going across the whole of the London underground, we landed in one of my best-loved places: Greenwich Hill. It was such a lovely day, so we sat and had a yummy ice cream while taking in the panoramic views. I also had one of many coffees at this point, so I thought it would be a good idea to put my new book next to it to show you how gorgeous it is. 

We then wandered into Greenwich, which seemed to have a fairground-festivally thing going on...

And then one crepe-filled walk around Covent Garden later, we were on the train back home. I had the best day I've had in a long time, and any Harry Potter fan who hasn't been to MinaLima yet should DEFINITELY check it out. 

From, 

Eleanor