Bletchley Park - Day 3

 A bit of a restless night for us as we continue to acclimatize to the time change. Our alarms went off simultaneously at 7 am and I hit the shower first.

Once ready, we headed out to the bus stop right outside the hotel and grabbed the U3 back over to the Central Station at Terminal 2.  From here, we jumped on to the Heathrow Express and headed into Paddington Station.  

Paddington Station

 From Paddington we had to make a change and go to Oxford Station and connect to a northbound train to Euston. (Due to a rail line closure) Tube Map here  We then got on the Northwestern Railway to Bletchley Park departing at 10:23.  

A bit of extra walking as we fumbled our way around the different platforms. The train made a few stops but we arrived in Bletchley at 11:01. 

It was just a short walk up the road to the entrance..... very convenient! Kelly had a Two for One coupon on her phone and they honored it. Very nice of them as we were supposed to print it out... she didn't pack the printer!  

A quick coffee and croissant and then we wandered the property. 

The story of Bletchley was conveyed in the historic buildings with explanations of how the group worked. Three shift's a day x 3000 people meant this place was jammed with 9000 people at it's height in 1945.  The best part for myself was how the Enigma machine was made and modified over the years to make it even harder to crack. The folks at Bletchley used all sorts of methods to break codes and eventually created machines to help crack these codes and in turn produced the first computer (Colossus) to do the job in hours versus weeks.  

 

 Enigma machines.... they were later modified with additional wheels to increase the possible number combinations.  

 

 

Enigma Machine - Note the additional wheel in this version.

Colossus

The Lorenz SZ40 Cipher was used by the German's for the highest level of encryption. It added a separate digit to the beginning and end of the sequence that was random (sort of).  It contained 12 wheels and had 16 million, million, million different combinations! (that's 1.6 quintillion)  It used teletype and radio equipment to send messages.

 

To crack these sequences and produce a clear message in German, the Colossus was developed and after some tweaking, had successfully cracked the code and the German communications were fully compromised without them knowing. Bletchley Park Wikki here

 

The Mansion used by staff.

Main Library converted to a working office.

 

Kelly found a comfortable chair!

On the 15:40 train to Euston after grabbing a geocache right by the station. 

Once back at Euston, we transferred to Oxford Station via train but it was super crowded! We decided to bail and head up to the street level and wander around. Look!!! Selfridges and Marks & Spencer! Who knew! Well I think Kelly did :-) 

A bit of shopping completed, we grabbed the tube at Bond Street and headed to Paddington Station.   A cool drink was in order so we stopped at the Beer House to wet the whistle. 

We grabbed some food and then jumped on the Heathrow Express back to Terminal 2 and the Central Bus Station. Back at the hotel at 20:30. We checked in for our flight tomorrow and planned an early get up to catch the 08:50 departure to Glasgow.  We will grab the 06:49 Bus #423 outside in the morning and seven minutes later we should be there.

We have been in contact with Cody and the North Stratton Pipe Band has safely arrived in Glasgow (already had a practice!).  We hope to see him/them tomorrow at some point. 

 

Some blogging and repacking and now it's time to hit the rack. Glasgow tomorrow! 

 

Steps today: 18,430  

 

London Heathrow - Day 2

I woke up just as breakfast was being served so after a quick bite, I packed up my stuff and prepared for our arrival... iPad tucked away, shoes on etc.. Our flight path took us north of the city heading east so I was able to get some good pics as we lined up for a westbound landing. 

Tower Bridge at the bottom with the HMS Belfast all the way past the Eye and up to Big Ben and Westminster Hall.

 I managed a solid 4 hours of sleep before landing at London’s Heathrow Airport.  It was a nice smooth flight and we arrived early at 12:24 pm local time.  Proceeded through immigration then grabbed our bags from the carousel and then customs… easy. 

Lovely day with clear skies and 23ºc temps. We went to the Central Bus Station and  boarded the U3 bus at 13:15 to our hotel “area” bus stop .  It is just across the street from the Hyatt we are booked into. Quick and easy drop off and we were in our room at 13:30 (that's 1:30 PM  local :-) 

 

After a quick catnap to get rejuvenated, we headed down Bath Road to the local pub. Along the way we walked by the huge model of an Airbus A380 that looks over the roundabout entrance to the under ground tunnel that goes to the Central Bus Station and more Terminals.  More details on the 1/3rd scale plane are here

 

1/3 scale A-380

Tunnel under the runway.

A few steps past the roundabout we arrived at the Three Magpies Pub for dinner. Kelly was sorting out her iphone e-sim issues and after a lengthy text conversation with the company we got it all solved... eventually. (Mine worked great!) Dinner was good and the beverages refreshing. 

 

The Three Magpies Pub... a return visit for us!

 Back at the Hyatt Place Hotel, we finished up the blog and texted with family. We also scouted out our train route to Bletchley Park as this requires a trip into London to connect to the London Northwestern rail at Euston.... now to get to Euston :-)  

 

We pushed the evening to 10 PM local and hit the rack as we acclimatize to the time change. 

Intro & Travel Day 1

         And once again we are off on another adventure with a return trip to Glasgow Green and the World Pipe Band Championships. We are only spectators for this trip so no pressures of practice & competition. Our nephew Cody plays with the North Stratton Pipe Band from Edmonton so we will support them in their quest for World Dominance in the Grade 2 division! You will find the band's Facebook page here . 

We will hop a short flight from Victoria over to Vancouver and then on to London via Air Canada and eventually end up in Glasgow, Scotland in the coming days.  I'll update this blog daily (as best that I can) to let our friends & family know what we are up to.  Feel free to share it but it will not be published for search engines etc,,, initially. Stay tuned for more updates as I get this blog going... yes last minute!  There is an 8 hour time difference between PST in BC and the UK so you should get relevant news of our adventures before you have dinner back home. 

Our neighbor Wayne was our airport uber driver today and will return our car back home. Great folks! Easy check in and after getting some Pound Sterling from the currency exchange, we headed through security. Quick and easy. 

A cool beverage to get the trip started and then we boarded our flight to Vancouver.   

As both Kelly and I have competed at previous world championships, it will be nice to just relax, enjoy the Piping Live events, Shotts concert and then the games as both spectators and supporters of North Stratton PB and SFU PB.  We will also travel north after the event to some special spots that we have picked out. 

As with all the blogs, we have a dedicated group of “editors” that will correct my spelling and grammar errors as I usually blast these blog pages out late at night when I am exhausted from the day's events. Errors are normal and will be repaired in time :-)

Looks vaguely familiar!

 Update: We are now in Vancouver at the Maple Leaf Lounge enjoying a nice beverage and some light snacks. The lounge overlooks our Boeing 777 that will take us to London Heathrow (LHR)  

 

 We have a few hours to relax before boarding so this is a good opportunity to catch up with the blog and see what is transpiring at the FAI F3A World Championships in Muncie, IND.  They start in a couple days and I'll be watching with interest as our Canadian Team does it's best to represent the scores of grounded precision aerobatic fliers that we have in Canada. (That is a whole other story!) For those folks interested in that event, you can go on Facebook and check out the Precision Aerobatics Canada page here. 

 

Update - Now onboard and settled into our comfy seats to London. Food will be served, drinks ordered then a nice long nap to burn up the flight time to London. We will arrive at 13:20 local time (1:20 PM) and, after grabbing our bags, head to our local hotel near the airport. It will be a relaxing afternoon as we recover and acclimatize. Maybe the Three Magpies Pub for dinner????   

 

 Time to put the computer away..... talk/type tomorrow.