Our family of three made a fall trip focused on seeing Harry Potter movie locations in and around London. Like J.K. Rowling's books, we discovered something appealing for both young and old at each stop.

We started at King's Cross station to see Platform 9 3/4, where Harry and his fellow aspiring wizards board the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The yellow brick building with arched windows was constructed in 1851-52 for the Great Northern Railway to carry passengers to the Midlands, the North of England and Scotland. We found a cross-section of travelers here representing cultures from around the globe. The actual filming location where Harry disappeared into the arched barrier is between platforms 4 and 5. The station had erected a plaque and a prop, for picture-taking, between platforms 9 and 10.

Scenes of Diagon Alley were filmed along Charing Cross Road and at Leadenhall Market on Whittington Avenue. Leadenhall Market is an ornate late-Victorian structure with glass roof and cobbled alleys, filled with florists, restaurants, chic shops, high-quality meats, fruits and vegetables. We stopped on a weekday for pizza and watched crowds of business folk standing at outdoor tables, sipping beer and chatting through their lunch break. A favorite spot for tourists and locals, a meat and fish market has been operating here since the 14th century.

One block from the British Museum, at 105 Great Russell St., we felt like we were entering Olivander's wand shop. The walls are lined with narrow wooden drawers at L. Cornelissen & Son, established in 1855. The delicate custom-built drawers don't hold magic wands but do contain a delectable array of artist brushes, rare papers, canvas, printmaking and gilding materials. We purchased a superior-grade quill and India ink.

On the Strand, we spotted the Australia House, home of the Australian High Commission. This building was transformed into Gringott's Bank for the "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" film. And movie magic turned the London Zoo into Little Whinging Zoo, where Harry discovered he could communicate with snakes in the reptile house.

We set aside a day to travel from London by train to the ancient city of Oxford for more Harry Potter sights. Christ Church College, Oxford's largest college, has been used to stage a number of Hogwarts interior scenes. Christ Church College and Cathedral allow unescorted tours, providing guides and maps. The colleges are the students' homes while they are in Oxford, so there are certain times when the buildings are off-limits to visitors. We arrived at lunchtime and were asked to return in a hour.

Visitors enter Christ Church College through the Meadow Building, built in 1863. Turn left to the cloister, which, like the cathedral, is part of the original Priory of St. Frideswide. Both stood before the college was built. Turn your back to the medieval garden, go up the steps and into the tower to find a wide stone staircase. This is the staircase where Professor McGonagall greets the schoolchildren.

The stone staircase leads directly to the Dining Hall, known to Harry Potter fans as the Great Hall. This is the room that accommodates the great feasts at Hogwarts, and it is spellbinding. Portraits of famous members of Christ Church line the walls, including several British prime ministers educated here. Above High Table hangs a portrait of the college's founder, King Henry VIII.

This enchanting room holds many connections to another literary classic, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." High on the left-hand wall, the fifth window from the entrance shows portraits of Alice and creatures from the book. Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Dodgson, a mathematics tutor at Christ Church from 1855-98. Many of the characters in Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" were inspired by Christ Church people and objects.

Oxford also is home to the famous Bodleian Library, where Harry creeps at night under the Invisibility Cloak. The Duke Humphrey's Library featured as Hogwarts Library in the films, and the Divinity School became the Hospital Wing.

The highlight of our trip was the Eagle Heights Kent's Bird of Prey Centre in Eynsford, Kent. From the London Victoria train station, about an hour's train ride on British Rail, with a transfer at Bromley South, this jaunt is not for the faint of heart. We walked 1 1/2 miles from the Eynsford train station to the Bird of Prey Centre, but the journey felt like the destination.

The beguiling village of Eynsford lies on the River Darent. From Eynsford's train station, we headed east at Station Road toward the village. Before long we crossed the 17th-century Bridge by the ford. Tudor cottages, charming shops and eateries dotted Riverside Road until the street ended at Lullingstone Lane. Along Lullingstone Lane we were enveloped by emerald green meadows and peaceful farmland, hearing only sounds of nature, with the occasional train whistle in the distance. We followed the Eagle Heights signs to the top of Lullingstone Lane.

At Eagle Heights we admired the eagles, of course, along with vultures, falcons, hawks, buzzards, kites, caracaras and storks. But of all the birds, it is the owls that were the most popular attraction. We studied the barn owls, tawny owls, great grey owls, Cape Eagle owls and snowy owls on display. There are reptiles here too. Several indoor and outdoor exhibitions take place each day.

The outdoor demonstration enormously exceeded our expectations. At the outdoor arena a group of mostly locals and European tourists gathered to see the birds of prey in action. A vulture named Harry made an appearance. Awkward-looking birds, vultures. But when Harry took to the air, he became a thing of great beauty, grace and elegance, soaring over the crowd within arms reach, to the gasps of his guests.

A falcon named Guinevere stole our hearts. She sat high on a wooden perch overlooking the meadow while her trainer explained how this bird's ancestors in medieval times hunted for food to help their owners fill the soup pot. After a few minutes of scouting the landscape for prey, Guinevere took off, racing thousands of feet over the valley, chasing a flock of seagulls, diving into and scattering the crowd of frenzied gulls over and again. Guinevere finally returned, unsuccessful in her hunt (to my relief) and to the awe of a crowd that will undoubtedly never forget the experience.

What attracted us to the Eagle Heights Bird of Prey Centre is its commitment to education. Its purpose is to further awareness of birds of prey and to show the importance of their environment and conservation. The staff works hard to breed birds and rehabilitate animals back into the wild.

Perhaps the most surprising part of our October vacation to the "land of the gray cloud," as it's been called, was the weather. Coming from Hawai'i, we'd braced ourselves for chilly nights and rainy days. What we experienced were warm, sunny 74-degree days that felt almost like home.