Winter is coming!

I had to go out early on Sunday again. Giang, Son and I had planned to take part in a Game of Thrones tour. At half past nine I stood near the town hall at the meeting point and was welcomed by our guide Thorn (unfortunately I did not ask him, if it is his real name). Immediately when I saw him, I thought to myself: “he would fit well into the world of Game of Thrones!” As it turned out, I wasn’t that wrong. In fact, all tours of the agency are carried out by Game of Thrones (GoT from now on) extras. Thorn for example plays an officer of the “Night’s Watch”, the protectors of the wall.

Shortly after 9 am, it drove off. Our first stop was a short visit to the interior sets of GoT. Fun fact: Almost all interior scenes are shot in Belfast. In the port, HBO has rented a huge shipyard where many sets are built. For example, the top of the wall and the throne hall with the Iron Throne. There are also good chances to meet the actors in Belfast. They can move around here mostly unburdened, as a paparazzi culture is actively discouraged. As a private person you also should leave the actors alone. A selfie must not be shot anyway, as the actors are forbidden by contract to give you one (the change of appearance like hairstyle or beard is considered as a spoiler). Unfortunately, we could only see the hall from outside, but directly opposite we caught a few glimpses of a set.

Next we took the bus on a ferry to get to our first real stop: Castle Ward. Unfortunately, Thorn did not really explain what the buildings actually were. In GoT some scenes shot of the vicinity of Winterfell. When you’re there, you don’t see much of it, because a lot has been added by CGI afterwards. For example, in the series the outer wall consists of around eight towers. In reality, there is only one tower that is simply copied and slightly modified. Then there was a small hike to other locations passing through a beautiful river landscape. Directly on the river there was another tower built by Anglo-Celts. This is doubled in the series, digitally moved and forms one side of the “twins”. Especially known because of the “Red Wedding”.

It was time for lunch. Giang, Son and I had brought some food and we made ourselves comfortable on a bench. We were reasonably lucky with the weather. The sun didn’t shine much, but at least it wasn’t raining. The cloudy weather was a good fit for the theme of the tour. After dinner we were allowed to marvel at two “dogs” who played Direwolves in the first season. They had almost reached the size of a wolf now. The family, who owns the dogs, was closely associated with GoT. Father and sons have played different roles since the first season. As of late the three sons are playing White Walkers.

Our next stop was at an old chapel, which had fallen into ruins. It was by far the funniest part of the tour, because we were allowed to equip ourselves with long coats and real metal swords to roam the ruins.

Last we drove to the “birthplace” of the series, the place where the first scene was shot. For this we went into a dense forest. For the scene that is about three minutes, three weeks were shot and a large part of the forest had to be filled with paper snow. The forest was very impressive and there were many beautiful places to marvel at.

Overall the tour was incredibly interesting and a lot of fun! 🙂

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