Geek Pilgrimage: Bletchley Park and The National Museum of Computing

An easy day trip from London, Bletchley Park reveals there's far more to Britain's wartime code breaking than Alan Turing's battle with the Nazi Enigma machine. There are plenty of cool nerdy places to visit in London, from the British Library to Greenwich, but if you've got a little more time on your hands it's worth the trip up to Bletchley Park to see the how the Brits turned the tide of the war by eavesdropping on Hitler's seemingly uncrackable wartime communications systems. Bletchley Park mansion is roughly an hour's drive north of London, just off the M1. Alternatively you can catch the London Midland train – the mansion is only a short walk from Bletchley Park station – or else the Virgin Train to Milton Keynes Central and take a quick train or bus trip back to Bletchley Park. Purchased by MI6 just before the outbreak of the Second World War, the mansion initially served as home to the Government Code and Cypher School.