Determined to 'do things' in January this year, and having already been to London, we decided to go to Bletchley Park. Under the (quite wrong) impression that it was largely 'indoors' I found myself rather underdressed for the bitterly cold weather encountered when walking between buildings, and despite carrying the 'mulitmedia tour' equipment around our necks for the duration we gave up on that rather quickly as it was too cold to stand outside listening to that.
On the whole, it was okay. Admittedly it would have been a lot nicer to visit on a warmer day, but in any case the simple fact is that there's a lot to see (and even we were there for nearly three hours) but it's very, very repetitive. Really I would advise skipping the huts altogether, or maybe just go into one, because the most interesting part of the whole thing is the initial part and the museum.
The mansion is worth a look too, but for the most part you will find yourself reading and hearing the same things over and over again. There just isn't enough to say, to merit the amount of buildings and every time you go into a room it's like they need to explain everything from scratch, every single time.
On the way home I likened it to a 'Concorde' museum, built in the hangars where Concorde was conceived and built, but without any part of Concorde on display. Because the fact is that after the war everything, including the decoding machines were destroyed, so there really isn't anything to show you. And while they do occasionally attempt to explain how the code breaking works, it's quite difficult to grasp anything beyond the absolute basics..
There wasn't an awful lot about Alan Turing, besides one very small section which only briefly mentions his conviction for gross indecency (being gay), his chemical castration and eventual suicide. What a marvellous way to treat someone who saved countless soldiers lives!
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