So, imagine my surprise when we turned up to Bletchley Park on Saturday and discovered a tent waiting for us with our name on it. It turns out that the fantastic staff at Bletchley Park had been keeping an eye on the internets and had discovered that we were going to be coming on that day and had rolled out the welcome mats for us. Throughout the day Kelsey Griffin (Director of Operations no less) was around to help us out and guide us to Enigma demonstrations, our own private tour of the grounds and a fantastic talk about the inner workings of the Enigma machine. Honestly, the amount of attention we 35 geeks received on Saturday was absolutely over and above the call of duty. Thank-you to everyone at Bletchley Park.

One of the fantastic things about Bletchley Park is the fact that your ticket to get in (which is incredibly reasonably priced at £10 anyway) allows you to go back as many times as you want for a year. This is a damn good thing, since with all the great tours and talks I went on during the day I had very little chance to look at any of the exhibits! What I did see of them looked excellent though, and I’m absolutely certain that I’ll be going back again pretty soon. Living in Bedford I’m pretty lucky in this regard, since a return ticket on the train costs me only slightly more than a fiver, which is a winner in my book.

Bletchley Park is a brilliant place, and the code breaking that happened there during the Second World War played no small park in the war’s outcome. Today, Bletchley Park needs your support to stay alive and you can help by visiting, donating and by blogging about this unique place. Go on, visit — you know you want to.

Things other people have said about The Big Geek Day Out to Bletchley Park

• Photos on Flickr (320 and counting!)
• The Hodge – Bletchley park in an awesome experience
• Alex Wolf – Bletchley Park & The Big Geek Day Out
• Mike Davies – The Bletchley Park Experience

So, here’s the story. This saturday (18th July), I’m organising a “Big Geek Day Out” to Bletchley Park,the home of high-level British Intelligence during World War II. They’ve got Enigma machines, and apparently are fantastic about taking them out of the cases and letting people get up close and personal to photograph them. So far more than thirty people have said they’ll be coming, and if you’ve fancied visiting Bletchley Park before but never got round to it then you should come along as well.

That’s the whole idea of a Big Geek Day Out really — one person decides they’d like to go somewhere, they tell people they’ll be going on a certain date, and then people come along. It gets people going to places that they’ve been meaning to go to for ages but have never actually made it to.

So come to Bletchley Park. Becca and I will be arriving at about 10:30am, and we’ll hang around the front entrance until about 11am. If people want to explore the grounds with us then that’s cool, but likewise if people want to do their own thing for the day then that’ll be equally awesome.

Oh, and don’t forget to buy a ticket for Bletchley Park before you go (tickets are £8.50 online and let you go back as many times as you want for a year, or £10 if you buy them on the door). It’s sure to be a fun day out, so come along!