Middle Earth

Gernot and I have been to Hobbiton today, and we had ginger beer in the Green Dragon – that was so cool!

I had already booked the tour through the LOTR Hobbiton Movie Set via internet from Germany, and today is the day. We start towards Matamata in endlessly pouring rain. We are lucky: Just having arrived we can take one of the tour buses just leaving by chance.

The bus takes us across the farmland to the actual filmset. After finishing the shooting of “The Hobbit” this time they left all settings as they were due to the enormous interest of the fans. We follow our guide across the whole of Hobbiton for nearly two hours, seeing all living holes, Bag’s End, the stony bridge, the mill and the pub.

Since the premier of the first part of the prequel on Saturday the Green Dragon now is open to public. The pub is completey furnished to comfort Hobbits, everybody gets a free drink. We are asked not to take the mugs with us, since the pub was opened a few days ago half of the mugs have already gone.

They tell interesting anecdotes from the time of the shootings as well as experiences with previous visitors. Once a group of elves had just come to dance to elves music on the fairground for 1 ½ hours. OK, I am a fan, but not that mad!

After the tour we take the afternoon for strolling through Matamata. Anyway, the weather is too bad to do something else. Matamata is totally under the control of Hobbiton. Visitors are informed they now enter Hobbiton, every third shop is called Bag’s End and a lot of the shop windows are painted like a Hobbit hole. Never mind. Besides the typical take-aways here you also find some nice shops to go in and to satisfy your need for buying something. After quite a long time in areas with only few people and just a minimal infrastructure I am pleased.

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