The Evolution of Hobbiton

When Peter Jackson returned to film “The Hobbit” trilogy, the owners of the farm and the film company made the decision rebuild Hobbiton as a permanent set. This foresight has allowed fans to step into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved universe. The attention to detail is remarkable, with each Hobbit hole crafted to bring the fictional village to life.

Interestingly, the set features Hobbit houses built at different scales. Some are constructed at 60% of normal size, creating the illusion that humans standing nearby are much taller, aligning with the canonical height difference between Hobbits and humans. In contrast, other Hobbit holes are built at full scale, allowing human actors playing Hobbits to interact naturally within the space during filming.

Keeping the Magic Alive

Preserving the beauty of Hobbiton is no small feat. A team of nine full-time gardeners works tirelessly to keep the set in pristine condition. Their efforts extend beyond mere maintenance; the fruit trees and gardens throughout the set bear real, edible produce that staff members are welcome to enjoy.

Adding to the ambiance are the charming chimneys dotting the landscape. While not functional in the traditional sense, they emit a gentle smoke created by hidden smokers filled with wood chips, filling the air with a pleasant aroma and adding to the illusion of a lived-in village.

Iconic Locations

As we toured the set, our guide pointed out several significant locations. We saw Bag End, the luxurious Hobbit hole home to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. The guide also pointed out some movie trivia: the oak tree atop Bag End is a completely artificial creation with 300,000 hand-painted leaves, making it the most expensive single piece on the entire set.

We also visited Sam Gamgee’s more modest dwelling and crossed the very bridge that Gandalf traverses in his wagon. The tour concluded at the Green Dragon Inn, where we were treated to complimentary Hobbit ale, allowing us to literally taste a bit of Middle-earth.

Another recognizable spot is the field where Bilbo celebrates his eleventy-first birthday. Our guide shared an interesting tidbit: the cake in the film scene wasn’t real but was actually flammable, set alight off-screen after Bilbo’s memorable speech.

After the tour, I found myself rewatching parts of both “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies. It was thrilling to recognize specific locations from the set in the films. One scene that stood out was Bilbo’s mad dash from his home across Hobbiton to catch up with the dwarves embarking on their quest. Seeing the actual path he took on the set brought the scene to life in a new way.

Inside a Hobbit House

The interiors of the Hobbit holes were not used for filming. The production team found it challenging to control lighting and sound in such confined spaces. Instead, interior scenes were shot on separate sets. However, to satisfy curious visitors, one full Hobbit hole interior was constructed specifically for tours after filming concluded. Visitors are allowed to touch things inside too.

This tourist-accessible interior is a testament to the filmmakers’ dedication to authenticity. Every detail has been carefully considered, from the functioning fireplace to the plumbing. Even the fake stove, gives off a warm sensation when touched. The walls are adorned with whimsical touches like Hobbit newspapers and guides for foraging mushrooms, immersing visitors in the day-to-day life of these fictional beings.

Leaving Middle-Earth

As the tour ended, we ventured back out into the real world, and found myself surrounded by rolling hills dotted with sheep, their faithful canine companions herding them across the lush landscape.

See more of the Hobbiton Movie Set Tour here

It was quite quiet in the car on the way there as the two girls in the back slept while the guys in the front didn’t talk much (I was busy finishing up my homework for a course because I forgot to plan my time accordingly). We departed Vancouver at about 8 PM and arrived at my friend’s flat at about 10:30 PM. We spent the rest of the night having some beers and playing Pandemic on its hardest difficulty (it started out pretty mild, but the plague escalated quickly and went out of control).

Space Needle

The Space Needle is probably about the most iconic building in the entire city.

Around the vicinity, there are a lot other tourist attractions such as the Pacific Science Center, the EMP Museum (formerly known as the Science Fiction Museum), and plenty of green space.

We also visited the Amazon campus, which is where our friend was working at. What surprised me is that there wasn’t any huge signage that Amazon was there. The only Amazon sign I could was by staring really hard through the glass into the building lobby.

Just Chilling

We stopped to rest a bit at the lobby of a nearby apartment complex. While we rested, I learned how to play Shuffleboard (albeit badly) and played a game or two.

Seattle Underground

Our next destination was a tour of the underground portions of Seattle. To get to the tour location, we walked through a neighbourhood full of hobos that I would have otherwise avoided at night (it’s relatively mild compared to what East Hastings in Vancouver is like). On one occasion, a hobo asked me if I was ready for the Seahawks game where I promptly replied, “very readys”.

The tour guide told us that where we were in Seattle used to be a lot lower in terms of elevation. After a fire that destroyed the city, the city regraded the land and so all the buildings that used to be above ground were now underground. The tour took us around the underground sections to show the history of the area.

The picture below shows what people use the space for now – storage.

Because of the regrade, sidewalks had to be rebuilt one story higher than before, so city engineers added skylights onto the new sidewalks in order to illuminate the underground areas. On the surface of the sidwalks, one would be able to see the skylights from the other side at ground level.

In the past, the underground area was used for a lot of questionable activities, such as organized crime, speakeasies, prostitution, etc. Because of its history, this area of town is still considered by many locals as the sketchy part of town.

Pike Market

Pike Market feels like the market in Granville Island in Vancouver, but is a lot bigger. I can’t explain it, but for some reason I greatly enjoyed staring at all the seafood.

Sooo much fooood

By the water near the market, one can get a good view of the water. The Ferris Wheel adds a nice touch as well.

We happen to visit Seattle on the weekend where there was a football game between the Seahawks and the 49ers to see which team would go to the Superbowl and because of that all over the city, people put up flags with the number 12 in support of the team. This building must’ve been full of Seahawks fans.

Shiro’s

This restaurant is so popular that when we tried to walk in at 7, to get a spot, the waitress told us to come back at 9. We had heard really good things about this place, so we actually starved ourselves until 9.

My friends encouraged me to try and order in Japanese, so I did. I started by saying to the waitress that I’d try to speak Japanese (私は日本語を話してみます), and then I listed off the food one by one and then success! While it was nothing complicated to do, it was cool doing that anyways.

I’d say the food was definitely worth the wait. I’d definitely recommend this place to people who really like seafood and sushi.

Morning Walk

The next day, we woke up early to go to Pike Market to buy some groceries to make breakfast. We walked along the pier and got quite a nice view of it.

Serious Pie

For lunch, we went to a pizza place that also came highly recommended. When I looked at the menu, every item had at least one word that I didn’t know. I had no idea what I was ordering, but the pizza was really delicious!  I also recommend this place.

Back to Vancouver

After lunch, we stayed for a bit longer at our friend’s flat before heading back to Vancouver. Seattle was a much welcome change in scenery and it has further enforced my desire to travel around to different places.

Album link here

Now that I’m not occupied by episode after episode of TV shows, I can finally catch up on my blog rather than keeping a queue of all the things I want to blog about. In my attempt to go somewhere new every weekend, I chose to go to Freiburg im Breisgau last Saturday.

I woke up early in the morning at around 5 and got ready to leave the house at 6:30.  I probably woke up my landlord’s family downstairs from the running water while I showered, but I unfortunately, I can’t really do anything about that.  I figured leaving an hour early to meet up with my friend at a train station that only takes half an hour to get to should give me quite a bit of flex time. Half an hour seemed like a lot to me, until I saw how long I had to wait for my train.  I waited a whole twenty minutes for it.  The worst part about the wait was that I never charged my iPod.  I stood around and silently waited.  Kind of like watching grass grow.  Although in retrospect, I could have left the house a little later, but at least I wouldn’t miss my train.

After meeting up with my friend, I we patiently waited for the train.  From the corner of my eye, I saw something tiny moving around on the tracks.  An animal?  It was a mouse, or a rat.  I don’t know the difference.  I tried my best to catch a picture of it while it zipped around and underneath the train tracks.  It kind of felt like playing that old N64 game, Pokemon Snap.  If this was Pokemon Snap, I would have gotten a low score for that picture.

The train arrived at around 7:30 and it would stop at Karlsruhe.  On the ride there, my friend and I just talked while looking looking out the window.  After we arrived in Karlsruhe, we had to wait a half hour for our connecting train.  The moment I looked out onto the station platforms after stepping out of the train, the sight instantly reminded me of the City 17 train station in Half-Life 2 (everything reminds me of games doesn’t it?)

While walking around the train station trying to kill time, we found a place that sold 5 Berliners for 2 euro.  Although called a Berliner, it clearly has nothing to do with someone from Berlin.  Despite the misleading name, Berliners are a pastry that is like a European version of a doughnut (never ever call it that).  It’s got sugar on top and jam filling on the inside.

After boarding the connecting train, I talked to my friend about how long train rides were.  I don’t know if it’s because English attracts attention, but a random stranger sitting across from us started talking saying how it is perfectly normal for train rides to take a long time.  Since he was German and probably didn’t get a lot of practice with English, he spoke to us with a heavy accent.  He started talking about how sometimes people will commit suicide by train, which causes trains to stop in the middle of nowhere and everyone on board is forbidden to get out.  The weirdest part of it was that train suicides were seasonal.  According to him, more people commit suicide by train in the summer.  After speaking to him a little more, I found that even some Germans read manga.  I didn’t know that manga was that popular.  I even saw Dragon Ball manga translated in German in a bookstore.

Two train transfers and three and a half hours later, we arrived in Freiburg im Breisgau.  According to Wikipedia, it’s the warmest place in Germany.  As usual, the first thing we do upon arriving at a new place is to look for a map to find the tourist information center to get a map.  I had already looked up what sights to see the night before, so all I needed was a map to tell me how to get there.  Even without the map, we could both see the tower of the Freiburger Munster standing tall above every building in its vicinity.  All we needed to do was head in that direction.

Thus far, the Freiburger Munster is the most amazing work of church architecture I have seen, inside and outside (The only place that I think could be better is the Sistine Chapel, but I haven’t been there yet). I would describe it, but I’m terrible at descriptive writing.  Good thing is that a picture is worth a thousand words!

After walking around inside for a little bit, I came across a set of statues in front of a window set up in a way that a group of statues were all looking at the body of Jesus Christ.  When I was looking at these statues, it happened to be around noon, and the sunlight shined through the window and I could see the glare.  It seems as if the scene was designed this way: to have the Light of God shine down.

Walking around some more, I came across a statue that looked suspiciously like Chancellor Palpatine of Star Wars (there’s my nerdiness popping up again).  Who knows, maybe George Lucas got inspiration from this and found an actor that looks like the guy in this statue.

On our way out, we learned that we could visit the church tower.  Despite the popularity of the church tower, there was no elevator (makes sense, since the church is quite old) and had a set of the narrowest spiral staircases ever seen.  Two people could barely pass through each other.  One wrong step would cause one to tumble around and around down to the bottom and bring other people along in a human snowball.  Luckily for me, that did not happen, but it sure was tiring walking up all those steps.  At the top, we had a semi decent view of the town.  I say semi-decent because of the maintenance that was going on.  For three weeks in a row, every main attraction in each city I went to was under maintenance.  There was the Heidelberg Castle, Bebenhausen Abbey, and now this.  In addition to being able to look around town, I also saw the mechanism for the church bells.

On our way out of the cathedral, we smelled a strong scent of bratwurst and because of that, I decided that’s what i was going to have for lunch.  I guess my lunch was like a European hotdog (I have no idea what they call it).  They took a bread roll, cut it in half and put bratwurst and onions inside.  Like everyone else, I added ketchup and mustard.  I don’t think I can go back to eating regular North American sausages again after eating bratwurst.

A unique feature of the city is that water canals run through the town.  Upon first sight, one would think they were some sort of sewage system.  Known as Bachle, they were once used to provide water for firefighting and feed farm animals.  It is said that whoever steps in one must marry a Freiburger.  Around the town are a set of gates.  One of them, the Martinstor, has now been desecrated by McDonald’s.  How they managed to put their brand on such a historic structure is beyond me.

In the city is also a trail that leads up to the mountain, Schlossberg, for a view of the town.  I believe there was also public transportation that took the lazy folks up there.  As if the stairs at the church bell tower wasn’t even enough, we were now faced with yet another seemingly endless set of stairs.  We’d look up the mountain seeing how much further we needed to go every now and then.  Once we reached the top, we realized that it wasn’t really the top.  There was yet another set of staircases leading up.  It’s just that we couldn’t see it before we got all the way up.

On our way home, I came across a vandalized billboard on the side of the street.  The vandals had drawn a Hitler mustache on the peoples faces.  I found it kind of amusing since that doesn’t really happen in North America.  Not Hitler mustaches, anyway.

 On the train ride home yet another random stranger talked to us.  Except that the stranger this time wasn’t German.  He was an American who had just arrived in Stuttgart to work.  Like us, he spent his weekend traveling.  My friend and I were talking about gun control at the time when the guy started talking to us.  Apparently in his state of Virginia, one has the right to shoot someone in self defense to take someone’s life when their own is in danger.  He even told us a story about how someone he knew shot at a guy sneaking around suspiciously in their yard and how a friend of his has a license to carry a concealed weapon around.  It felt kind of nice to hear North American English again.

At the train station, while waiting for a connecting train, a third random stranger started talking to me.  Three in one day.  That has to be a record.  This time it wasn’t because I was speaking English.  This time it was because I’m Chinese.  A Turkish looking fellow looked at me as he walked by pushing a cart of luggage.  He looked at me and said “ni hao”, which is hello in Mandarin.  I was so surprised that I didn’t know how to reply, all I did was smile back in appreciation.  I guess Chinese people are a rare sight around here. 

For some reason, on the train ride home, the train stopped suddenly in the middle of nowhere.  I was reminded by the German fellow I talked to earlier about train suicides and I hoped that it didn’t happen.  Fortunately, it wasn’t anything serious and the train continued on its way after a few minutes.  After a nice day of sightseeing and hiking around, I got home and rested for the next day, which I spent uploading photos, blogging, and random household chores.  Sounds like quite the opposite in excitement compared to the day before.

My photo album for Freiburg im Breisgau

I am not trying to start a religious debate, but believing in the existence of God seems to be one of the fundamental premises for the discussion in this book.  I am not so certain that God “planned” me holding this book from before I was born, unlike what Rick Warren describes

I found it intriguing that God always took forty days to prepare one for His purposes.  I never realized that all these events took that long.  It hadn’t crossed my mind before.

Warren gives a good point when he says that when people read, they like to rush to the next chapter.  He urges the reader should not rush to the next chapter such that we can ponder it before moving further.  This makes a lot of sense to me.  Quickly moving onto the next chapter encourages the forgetting of the previous chapter.  I will see how it works in practice though.