Woolly says – After a reasonable nights sleep our bags were ready and our hosts insisted on ensuring that we had water, biscuits, and fruit, as the women kept saying thank you but no it seemed only polite that one of us accepted the goodies on offer so I happily filled every possible storage area with the lovely coffee biscuits on offer.

Today the biggest funeral the capital had ever seen was due to take place, our original plans were out of the window as all tourist destinations were closed, we had also been told that eateries would not be open and that there could be problems with transport. Bearing all of this in mind and being a resourceful type of mammoth, I had come up with a plan, first stop was Euston to leave our luggage and to make sure we were in the right area of the city for our departure later in the day.

The tubes were eerily quiet as we went up and down the steep banks of escalators changing lines until we popped up at the right place. Bags dropped we were surprised and delighted to find a number of cafes open and without further ado we headed for hot coffee and buns to keep our stamina up whilst checking our walking map.

Woolly had actually had a really good idea following on from our Harry Potter experience the day before, he had found us a walking trail of some of the places used for filming, we set off to see how many we could find.

Woolly says – A few metres down the road was St Pancras’s station and the location from the second film – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – where Mr Weasleys car had been taken by the boys and flown, the background had featured the beautiful building which seemed to go on for quite a while as we walked past.

A further short walk brought us to Kings Cross and one of the most famous landmarks for the books, the location of platform 9 ¾. I raced into the station to see if it really existed finding myself stood in front of a sign with the platform number on. I looked around but no one was attempting to get onto the platform itself, so taking a running start I headed into the wall…it hurt.

Once my small companion had tried several times to go through the brickwork I decided that it was time to move on before he injured himself to badly.

Woolly says – It was a con and sniffing in disgust I led the way onwards. The city was quiet with only an occasional car passing us, each and every billboard had the same displays to honour the departed Queen and as we walked we considered the changes in money, stamps, military and police uniform that the country would soon be going through.

We paused for a rest at Grimaldi Park named after the stage actor Joseph Grimaldi who’s resting place lay inside the gates and discussed the fact that JK Rowling had probably used the name for our next stop, Grimmauld Place known to be the ancestral home of the Black family and headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.

Ten minutes later we arrived at the square where filming had taken place and having taken our snaps paused to look at the next place on the map which is where we came a bit unstuck. The rest of the locations were several miles away and would take us directly into the areas where the funeral and processions were taking place something that we were keen not to get to close to in case we got stuck for getting back to Euston. I sighed in dismay and looked up at the females to see if they had any bright ideas. Jo grinned down at me and pointed out that we were only a couple of stops from Camden Lock which would be a nice area to wander and within walking distance of the train for later. Without further ado we headed back down into the depths of city and onto a train.

Climbing up the steps at the other end I was delighted to see life and shops open as well as the best zebra crossings I had ever seen, I mean who knew they had rainbow zebras in London!

We ambled along the shop fronts pointing out the wonderful displays above our heads, trainers that would fit a giant sprouted out of the walls, a bright yellow frontage with an elephant greeted us as well as a large green dragon that attempted to draw us into his restaurant.

Having admired the lock itself we headed into the market area with it’s miles of small passageways selling all sorts of wonders.

An alleyway had the brightest array of umbrellas whilst a multil coloured horse celebrated the work of the shunting horses that had once worked the waterways.

There were plenty of food outlets showing their wares but one caught my eye for its pink exterior and it’s bubble waffles. I looked up at the girls to see if they had also spotted this delight and was delighted to realise that they were one step in front of me and had already ordered.

As we sat munching our waffles coated in chocolate and bananas I felt rather proud of us all. The level of worry about having to deal with millions of people and problems with food and transport had come to nothing but we had been prepared for anything, as we headed back to Euston and our train back we also had the bonus of still having a large quantity of snacks to keep me going all the way home.