Blast from the Past: Bletchley Park

I have been working on this post for years....literally. Every time I would log into my blog account, I would see this very old DRAFT post that I never wrote although had pictures added. Every time I had all these other posts I was working on and couldn’t get this one done. 

Well, today is the day! I am getting this done! 

The post below will have little factual information because it’s mostly forgotten-hahahaha. The events that were the basis of this post occurred on April 25, 20015. That is more than 8 years ago, as evident by how young our children look. 

One spring Saturday, before we had sports and tournaments, we decided to go on another day trip, not too far from home. We had to drive pass Milton Keynes, the town of hundreds of roundabouts, and that’s what I most remember about the drive. 

Before Bletchley became famous in the last decade, it was a very secretive place. All because it was the home to the World War Two Codebreakers. In the recent years it has been mentioned in many movies and books.  The Rose Code and The Imitation Game are just first ones that come to mind. 

The estate of Bletchley Park is a well organized hands on exhibit with an excellent audio tour that is interesting to all ages. 

Almost 10,000 people worked at Bletchley, but the lists of personnel were never produced. Those who worked there kept it a secret for many years! In fact, my British friend, Liz, has a relative who worked there but only recently was allowed to disclose that fact to her family. 

Part of the exhibit is outside, giving you a sense of what it was like to walk in and out these buildings and how the operation was set up. 

Each cottage and hut was unique showing different tasks that were performed during the code breaking process. 

Garages played a significant role in the Dispatch Riders initiative, military delivery personnel. 

Katya was fascinated with the old typewriters. I can’t remember what was special about this one though.

Mark doing his audio tour, obediently, like any other 6 year old would:). 

These stories were really interested, and holograms making them sound more real. 

And of course, I have to mention the Enigma cipher device and the significance of Bletchley in breaking the code (and trying to keep it secret that they did). 

I just love that the kids got to experience all of this. Really. Before phones, before busyness...this was the best that we could have done with them--take them to so many places and to so many museums, castle, estates and seemingly “boring things”. 

Bletchely...I can finally let you go. I finally don’t have to see you on the bottom of my Drafts list. I have forever made you permanent in this blog so that we will remember this day and experience. 

Lyana.