Luke Petrolekas

Travelling, a Pilgrimage

Bletchley Park is famous for hosting the codebreakers of the Enigma. I have always been fascinated by spies and codebreaking, and the very best of the era was Alan Turing, father of modern computing. I knew I had to visit Bletchley Park, as a sort of pilgrimage, and to walk the grounds of all those who saved countless lives, hours, and ships in pursuit of an Allied victory. Today, Bletchley Park is also a museum showcasing computing history, including demonstrations of the Bombe (the Enigma code breaking machine), Colossus, and the WITCH. The museum also showed 100MB hard drives the size of washing machines, ancient 5-bit pre-ASCII coding schemes, and early versions of Conway's Game of Life. It was an enlightening visit, and I grew in my respect for a genius whose life was cut short due to discrimination and fear.

I wove that interest into a trip to London, UK in 2017, and have since visited several countries on the European continent. It's always great to visit places that are different than one's own, to get a better sense of what life is like in another country, whether you speak the language or not. I have made great friends and new contacts while away, as travelling tends to broaden horizons and outlook.

There are many more places to visit and I look forward to adding to this collection. Below, you will find some highlights from my travels. I hope you enjoy them. I enjoy taking travel pictures; they become great momentos of a life well lived.