THE REAL HOGWARTS

Harry Potter is amazing and that simply cannot be questioned. Ever since I was super young, almost every year my parents would take me to a place called Alnwick Castle in Northumbria. It is the home to the Duke and Duchess of Northumbria and is in fact the real Hogwarts.

Alnwick Castle is where parts of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret's were filmed. Harry's first flying lesson? Filmed there. "It's LeviOsar not LevioSAR, no wonder she doesn't have any friends." Also filmed there.

So, in Chappell family tradition we decided to spend the day there again. This time taking my boyfriend because he is also a Harry Potter fan and let's face it, all Harry Potter fans need to experience this at least once in their life.

After being stuck in traffic, the regular two hours journey turned into a four hour one.. Not that Axel noticed as he slept through about three hours of it. The first thing we did was sit on the hill outside the castle and eat our lunch, soon to be distracted by shouts from Dumbledore and Harry. (Okay, not the real ones, but pretend for the kids, okay?) They were doing some sort of magic show. Not the expelliarmus kind, more of the pour water into a newspaper and it magically disappears kind.

Alnwick Castle also has a children section where they can play giant chess, dress up as knights and that kind of thing. Despite 20 years old being the age of the youngest member of our group (me), we did visit this area of the castle purely for the dragon's quest. The dragon's quest has one of those things where you walk over a little bridge and you are in a cylinder shaped room and the wall spins round you and makes you dizzy and you walk across. Very bad explanation. Not surprised if you don't know what I mean. Anyway, my mum is crazy enough as it is so her walking through there is hilarious.

We had a film tour of the castle where a lovely man called George walked us round the outside of the castle telling us about everything that was filmed there. The main focuses being Harry Potter (of course) and Downton Abbey (not a fan). Honestly, if you are a fan of Harry Potter you have to put this place on your bucket list. You might even see Hagrid's original hut.. You know, before they change the layout of Hogwarts and confused us all.

Inside the castle is magnificent. Can somebody please get me a castle of my own?

In the final part of our day we got tickets (which were free) to visit "the lost cellars". This was kind of a miniature ghost walk in some cellars. To be honest, this part wasn't so great at all. It may have been a bit scary for young children but considering the youngest people allowed to take part have to be 13, this seems kind of pointless.

I love Alnwick Castle so much and will definitely going back in the future. Alnwick Castle is also right next to Alnwick Gardens which are the most beautiful gardens I have seen. We didn't have time to go on this day because I am a Harry Potter nerd and clung to Hogwarts as much as I could. But, if you get a chance to visit Alnwick Castle I would strongly recommend getting there early and leaving as late as possible so that you get the chance to visit the gardens as well.