Day 11 started out as most of the tour days did. An early wake up call, a good breakfast, and a ride on the subway. Oh, wait, no subway issues this morning. With all the walking, and less than desirable location of our hotel, our Tour Director contacted EF and fought to get us a bus for the morning to help take some of the load off the feet of our travellers.
The morning started really nicely. A beautiful sunny day, and a walk through Bletchley Park. For those who don’t know, Bletchley Park isn’t a poorly named park. It is the name of the World War 2 Allied base where the German Enigma machine code was cracked. This code breaking allowed the Allies to intercept German transmissions, and the efforts and successes made here have been said to have shortened the war by 2 – 4 years. Some students signed up for guided tours, while others took device led, walking tours, and learned about the codebreakers and the facility. This is the same facility that is featured in the Hollywood move The Imitation Game.
Part way through the morning, travellers had the choice of staying in the Bletchley area, or taking a 3 minute walk next door to the computer museum. Those that chose the second option were treated to a short tour that featured some of the first working computers, as well as the oldest functioning computer. Then they were able to view, and play on, some of the computers that earlier generations used. Many of the chaperones enjoyed reminiscing about the Commodore 64, the early Macintosh Apple computers, and games like Frogger, Space Invaders, and Grand Prix. Oddly, several of these games were a big hit with the younger travellers.
Having spent much of the day at Bletchley and the computer museum, we made our way back to London. Here we were treated to a cruise down the Thames on a typical ‘sunny’ London day. We had a great time, in spite of a little bit of rain. Our tour guide, Tom, pointed out some very interesting sights, gave us some history lessons, and included quite a bit of humour in his oratory.
Our Thames tour ended in the Westminster area, and we headed to a restaurant in the Picadilly Circus area. Tiger Tiger was an interesting restaurant. It looked sort of fancy as you walked in, but then was reminiscent of a night club as you moved toward the back. Tiger Tiger fed the travellers well, with excellent burgers and fries, and a very nice chocolate cake for desert.
Following dinner, the travellers were given a couple of hours to explore Picadilly Circus. This is where many of their ‘best’ souvenirs were attained.
Picadilly Circus was the last stop of our day. We hopped back on the Tube, where our Tube troubles finally seemed to be solved. We headed to the hotel for lights our.