LONDON —
At London 2012, where the queue goes on forever and the traffic never ends, maybe the easiest Olympic venue to reach is the one for quidditch. You simply catch the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9¾.
Welcome to the Summer Games, where Usain Bolt is one fast muggle. But he ain’t no wizard.
“I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, a huge J.K. Rowling fan. I’m a fan of everything she does, and I’ve read all the books,” said U.S. basketball star Kobe Bryant, who sits alongside his children with a book to chill during the NBA playoffs.
In London, signs of Potter are everywhere, and Rowling might be bigger than Shakespeare.
Ron Weasley (or at least actor Rupert Grint) helped carry the Olympic torch to the city. Former U.S. diving star Greg Louganis has dogs named Dobby and Hedwig. British cycling star Bradley Wiggins sounds like he was a member of Slytherin.
Is it a stretch to call this the Potter Gen Games, when stars of Team USA are teenage gymnast Gabby Douglas and Colorado prep phenom Missy Franklin?
If you’re a fan or a journalist, it takes a bus, a train, a comfortable pair of shoes and a whole lot of patience to get anywhere at London 2012.
At dawn or after midnight, each and every day, I have scurried, ambled and trudged through a gorgeous, majestic, brick, Victorian railway station nearly 150 years old.
It’s called London St Pancras.
It looks like something straight out of a movie.
At 2 a.m., after a long night of watching track and field, it dawned on me why it evokes such a feeling of déj… vu.
This train depot, as well as the King’s Cross station across the street, was a backdrop in the Potter movies.
When young Potter was off to Hogwarts, he needed to catch a train. And remember the warning?
“Stick to your ticket, Harry. That’s very important,” Hagrid said.
Potter looked at the ticket, thinking Platform 9¾ had to be a misprint.
But as he soon learned, a wizard must literally go through a brick wall to catch the Hogwarts Express.
The popularity of the franchise gave birth to a tourist attraction.
Inside King’s Cross, next to a bookstore, there’s the back half of a push cart adhered to a brick wall, adorned with a sign that reads: Platform 9¾. Folks scurrying to catch a train stop dead in their tracks, shriek with delight and get in line to take a photo.
Getting in line should be an Olympic sport in London.
But, yes, I had a friend take a photo of this old muggle trying to push a cart through a brick wall.
We’re massively sorry, John, Paul, George and Ringo, but that delightfully cheesy tourist photo opportunity on Abbey Road is so 1980s.
The most delightfully tacky London landmark for a homemade postcard in this generation is right here in Platform No. 9¾.
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053, mkiszla@denverpost.com or
