Bletchley Park

Everyone and their grandma knows Benedict Cumberbatch at this point. You know, the guy from Sherlock? Smaug from the Hobbit? Oh, and he played Alan Turing in the Imitation Game.

The Imitation Game is a movie about the mathematician Alan Turing who invented a machine during the Second World War that would make it possible to decode German messages encrypted in Enigma. The whole thing is actually Alan re-telling his war time story to a police officer after his house gets broken into in 1951. It also contains flashbacks to his childhood/early teenage years in 1927 when his best friend, whom he was in love with, dies. In the end, Alan commits suicide after being forced to undergo hormonal therapy when it comes out that he is homosexual.

Now, the film is very good. The acting is great and you can see a lot about the issues from back then as well as the horrors of WW2. But the reason I mention it in the first place is that the war time part of the film takes place at Bletchley Park. Here the code breakers of WW2 spent their days unable to talk to anybody about what they were doing. And it's only a short train ride away from London!

I would recommand to come to Bletchley Park as early as possible. It closes at 5pm and if you want to see everything you will definitely need some time. You can also go on a free tour where the tour guide explains what the workers did at Bletchley Park and why some people who worked here didn't even hear about Enigma until after the war.

A part of the little mansion is dedicated to the film itself since the pub scene was filmed here (and can be visited). You can read and find out more about the actual war work in the original huts right next to the mansion. You can see why it had to be kept as much of a secret as possible and try your luck in the little games that try to show you how Alan and his team worked. 

In Block B you can also see a fully-operational Bombe rebuild, a gallery about Alan Turing as well as several Enigma machines, the Japanese part of the decryptation work and a timeline of Bletchley Park/"computers" before and during the war.

And if you are tired of wandering around you can always sit outside on the picknick benches or the chairs and just lie down on the grass. Luckily we had a sunny day and sat there for a bit eating. It would be a waste to not do that on a sunny day (especially in the UK, as cliche as it may be).