Enigma Variations

So yesterday we went to Bletchley Park, home of Enigma and Colossus for a look-see.

Furtle and I dragged ourselves out of bed at the unaccustomed time (on a Sunday) of 7.30am –egad, it was a hard thing to do – breakfasted and caught the bus to Wanstead to meet mrtonylee and literaryrose for the drive up to Bletchley, where we rendezvoused with rinkyandmerlin and Ant.

With the exception of the house and original outbuildings themselves, a lot of the old Second World War huts need a fair amount of refurbishment, though it’s hard to see where the loot for that will come from in this age of renewed austerity. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting museum, very interesting. I have to admit, though, that as I read more and more of the technical specs of the Enigma machines and such wonders as the Turing Bombe and finally Colossus and so and so forth, the sound of the Magic Roundabout theme tune started playing in my head and overwrote any conscious thought. Suffice it to say that a lot of people brained for a long time to great effect at Bletchley Park in the dark days of World War Two.

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