London/Paris trip 28Dec - Bletchley Park

Way back in the 1870s, when Samuel Lipscomb bought the land that would eventually become Bletchley Park, he bought it because it was a short walk from the Bletchley train station which is a straight shot from the London Euston station, which is very convinient when you're a big wheeler-dealer in London and want a mansion in the country. That line exists today, and my plan was to leave around 9am from Euston, take the 30 min ride up to Bletchley and spend a nice day up there. But, the TfL and rail work had other ideas. We bought our tickets and I asked the ticket guy which platform for the train and the guy responded in some unintelligble brogue (like Brad Pitt's in Snatch) that there's no trains running that way, so I asked how we're to get to Bletchley. He mumbled something, including the word bus and other stuff, but I couldn't figure it out. I asked him to repeat it so I could write it down, still didn't get it so he printed it out. We had to take the underground to the northen end of London (to the Stanmore station, for those of you keeping score at home), which took well over 45 min, then a 20 min bus ride to a train station (Hemel Hempstead) AND THEN we get the train to Bletchley, all told, a 90+ min trip. We walked around Bletchley, including the first "musuem" which is connected to the entry/ticket area and it does a good job of explaining what Engima was, how the Brits broke it and so on. There are lots of interactive exhibits at Bletchley and as a computer nerd, it was very cool to see all of the equipment. Inside the mansion, we grabbed our reservations for the walking/guided tour and saw the set for the "bar scenes" in the Imitation Game as well as the prop "Bombe" used in the movie. The guided tour kicked ass and the guy did a very good job of explaining the history of Bletchley, where they did things and so on. I sent mom a postcard from the Bletchley Park post office and we got in to see the very end of a working Bombe (it's a rebuild/replica, but it's the real deal). Bletchley was closing early for the day, so we ran into the gift shop and took the train/bus/subway back to Kings Cross. Dinner that night was at the pseudo-local pub across the street from the hotel, which was actually very good! Seeing Bletchley made the trip, and I definitely want to head back and spend a full day checking everything out. This story gives a quick hit on the rebuild of the Bombe: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/23/bletchley_bombe/ It mentions that Bletchley Park was very run down, but the Bletchley Park trust has done a great job of restoring lots of the buildings (that could be saved, some are gone). The trip to Bletchley made the trip!