Bletchley Park and The National Museum of Computing

We broke our family museum rule today and did two, but we didn’t really have any choice since they are right next to each other and an hour and 20 minutes away from our house.

Bletchley Park (the secret site of WWII code breaking – mostly German, but also Japanese) has been on our list since we moved here, but there’s too much to do in England and we hadn’t gotten there yet. We did want to make sure to do it in the winter before more tourists come. I am sure that with the popularity of the movie The Imitation Game, more tourists will try and figure out how to get here. Even with coming in February, there were a lot of people here. Fortunately, much of the site requires you to walk between buildings which gives you a break from crowds, but the inside of buildings was pretty crowded in places.

Bletchley Park was far more interesting than I was expecting and it took much longer than I thought it would. We spent five hours there, including a break for excellent boxed refrigerated sandwiches from the cafe, and we still didn’t see everything. We saw all the major parts, but we ran out of steam at the end when we came to a large room full of posters and display cases filled with evermore information. As interesting as something is, there is only so much one can take in.

Today’s weather was gloomy, so that made some of the pictures a bit dark.

A pond right past the entrance to Bletchley Park. There were several pictures of this pond frozen over and people ice skating in the winter of 1941. The grounds were kept nice and had lots places for people to sit because the work environment here was so stressful.

The building called “The Mansion.” This property was previously a private home and this was where the owners lived. It was used as offices during the war.

A large room in the back that was used as a place for the workers to relax during their infrequent breaks. It was also used in the Imitation Game movie, but we haven’t seen that yet.

The bar with WWII beer bottles. The Fullers bottles are much more colorful now.

Many props from the Imitation Game movie.

I couldn’t get this picture to turn out well. This is the Bletchley Park post office, and you could actually mail things from here.

This is the garage. This car was used in a movie that I have never heard of called Enigma with Kate Winslet and made by Mick Jagger’s (!!) production company. Who knew?

These are “The Cottages” and the code breaking was done here until the department became too big. This is where the Enigma code was broken the first time.

These are huts 3 and 6. The majority of the code breaking was done here.

Inside hut 6. This poor woman was freezing because these huts were neither heated nor insulated. Fortunately she had a cup of tea that she could drink from over and over.

Hut 8.

Alan Turing’s office.

I like the WWII signs.

An original, working Bombe Machine, which were used to decipher each day’s Enigma codes. This poor man had been giving demonstrations all day, and his voice was giving out. His talk was really interesting and informative. A bit before this we were in the room where the Bombes were used. They had about 12 replica Bombes and it must have been really loud in there when these were all going at once.

I forgot to take a picture of the outside, but we are now in the National Computing Museum.

This is one of the first computers and it’s called Colossus. There were 10 of these made by the end of WWII.

This is an EDSAC, and is the oldest computer in the world. It was built between 1947-49 at Cambridge University.

This is a Tunny Machine, which is another type of code breaking machine that was used during WWII.

Google sponsored a couple of areas here, but this one was good. Women did some pretty impressive things with computers in the early days, but you don’t hear about it much.

I remembered reading about this a long time ago, but this had more information than I knew. It’s funny thinking about a glamorous Hollywood star working on electrical engineering in their private life.


I had to do this horrendous, scary series of roundabouts today. We actually did them about two weeks ago (that was my first time), but they haven’t gotten any better in the meantime. It is a series of roundabouts that are smack next to each other and come so quickly that the map lady can’t keep up, so you are on your own. It’s a good thing there are three other people in the car to read the signs because I am too busy trying not to hit anyone, and I can’t even look at the signs.

There is a series of roundabouts in Swindon that are supposed to be even worse, but we haven’t done that one. I did see a picture of it when I was studying for my driving test. I think this roundabout is better, though, because it has a town on it called Leighton Buzzard. It’s hard to top that.

Ham House

Today’s adventure was to a National Trust property not far from us that we had not yet been to. Ham House was built in the 17th century, and was once owned by the Royal family. It is alongside the Thames just outside of the town of Richmond. Richmond is part of Greater London, so I got a bit of big city driving today.

Today was dark and overcast, so I had to use the sun setting on my phone which washes out colors a bit.

The front door is original and it has a date of 1620 on it.

This is The Still House. This is the room that was formally used to distill ingredients to make medicine, cosmetics and confectionery. The owner of the house in the 1600s was Elizabeth, and she believed that snail water was good for gout. She put a quart of worms and a peck of garden snails in water and drank it. Sounds good, but apparently it was not effective.

The Kitchen. The woman was making gingerbread cookies the same way they would have in the 17th century. She was trying to figure out ratios of ingredients so that the cookies could have the proper consistency to hold the shape of a mold as well as taste good. She pulled a batch out of the oven while we were there, but she didn’t like the taste so it will require more adjustment. The gingerbread recipe had no eggs and used treacle (like molasses) as a binder.

The beer cellar.

The Duchess’ Bathroom. This room was purpose-built as a bathroom in 1672 and the sign told us that it is the earliest surviving bathroom (purpose built for bathing) in the country. We can now check seeing the oldest bathroom in England off of our list. Little did we know that would happen when we got up this morning.

The sign also told us that Elizabeth would sit in this tub on the stool and servants would pour warm, scented water over her as she cleaned herself. Their was also a four poster bed in this room that Elizabeth used post-bath use in order to regain her strength after her strenuous bath experience.

A couple of outbuildings. The one on the left is the former dairy.

The counter (they call them a “benchtop” over here) in the dairy. I like the legs. The tiles here are original Wedgwood tiles from the 17th century, so they are worth a fortune.

Statues of Charles I and II.

This wooden bench is original to the house and is from the 17th century.

A formal garden with box and lavender.

We had a garden tour and the guide told us that a manicured lawn was rare when it was put in. This lawn took two gardeners 2 1/2 days a week to maintain—no lawnmowers, only scythes. Only the super rich could afford lawns.

The stables. These were originally part of Ham House, but are not now. The National Trust owns the house but they were unable to afford the stables.

The kitchen garden.

The former orangery that is now the cafe. All of these properties have cafes that are always at least pretty good. This one even had cream teas.

The house was pretty close to the Thames. We are not far from London, so you can easily get there by boat as well as to other palaces along the river like Hampton Court or the old Richmond Palace.

Whipsnade Zoo

The kids have had Whipsnade Zoo on their list since we moved here, and we finally got there today. Whipsnade is a branch of the London Zoo and is where the larger animals are kept as well as those that require more space. This zoo is about an hour north of us and 30 minutes or so north of London. The zoo is huge and it took us about 4 hours to see almost all of it.

We had no rain today, but it rained yesterday. It was cold and this part of England seems to always be windy. Most of the paths here are dirt, so we all have muddy shoes and pants.

We started off by seeing the California Sea Lion show. It’s funny to come all the way over here to see sea lions when they are fairly common around Seattle. The sea lions at home don’t do tricks, though.

All three jumping for the balls.

I am still amused to see signs on many buildings telling us about which member of the Royal family opened which building. One of my favorites is the orthodontist office we visited in our small town that had a sign on it that it was opened by the Princess Royal. Fancy. The tiger exhibit at this zoo was opened by Prince Edward.

The zoo has 10 Asian elephants. They were all in a smallish enclosure while we saw them, but it looked like they had access to a huge field. It’s not the 50 miles or so elephants need, but it looked to be a lot better than many zoos. There were also two baby elephants here.

These funny little animals had free range all over the zoo. We finally found a sign to tell us what they were – Pantagonian Mara. They are closely related to guinea pigs.

One horned rhino nibbling on a branch. They have long flexible lips.

The rhinos also had this lovely muddy area to hang out in.

Flamingos. They make lots of noise, sort of birdy chatter.

A funny looking pig called a red river hog. They have funny pointy ears that look like elf ears. They are vigorous rooters and their pen looks has giant pits all over.

Lions. We have never been this close to them before. They had just eaten and their leftovers were being picked over by birds.

The zoo was in a hilly area and offered some nice countryside views.

A mom and baby hippo.

The cheetahs did not come out in the sun to be photographed.

We could get really close to giraffes, too.

ZSL makes some good signs.

European Lynx.

Chimpanzee. We learned later from a sign that this is Elvis. The sign told us that Elvis regularly stole food from the other chimps, and he had just stolen most of these branches from another chimp as we watched. He needs better manners.

Ring tailed lemur. Very jumpy critters.

Red panda. They spend most of their time up in trees.

River otters. These are very cute animals. They are chirpy like kittens and look directly at people. The on the right is named Flash and he carries a little pebble around wherever he goes. The zoo put up a sign to tell people because he walks funny while carrying the pebble. The sign told us that he is not hurt, he is just walking using three limbs since the fourth is holding the pebble.

Amsterdam to home

We are now back home in England, but we were able to spend a couple of hours walking around Amsterdam this morning. We also bought a loaf of bread at a market to have with dinner. The best part: the flight home was only 40 minutes. Perfect.

A nice bridge.

A project idea for what to do with all those wine bottles. Three of these on a single boat, along with some other arty stuff.

After another breakfast of pancakes, we walked over to a large Saturday market called Noordermarkt. It was huge, but we only bought a loaf of bread.

A cheese stall. We did buy some cheese to bring home the day before.

Flower stall.

The market was really long. Really long. Seemed like half a mile. Google Maps says it’s more like half a kilometer.

Houseboats along the canal.

Canal view with a tourist boat going by.

The view from the houseboat we rented.

B slept in a hole on the houseboat. He said he liked having his own space.

B in the hole. We discussed the Black Hole of Calcutta several times.

J and I had a shelf to sleep on. There was only one head bonk over the three days we stayed here.

Here was the living room. We wouldn’t stay in the this place again. Not realizing how prevalent smoking is in Amsterdam, it didn’t occur to me smoking would be allowed in a rental. It was, and this place stunk. It was also really cold in the above-water areas, and the heat was pretty fiddly, so houseboat renting for us only in warmer times of year.

At Heathrow we did long-term parking where you take a bus to your car. We won’t do that again. It saved us a bit of money, but it took a really long time. “Half the price and twice the aggravation,” as one of the younger set said.

We were able to go to the new Costco, though, so that was exciting. We were all a bit taken aback by this item we saw.

A Ceremonial Haggis. I am not sure what kind of ceremony this would be used for. The only British event I know of coming up is Pancake Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday), and this doesn’t seem to be for that. It was easily a foot across. I have only seen haggis before in a can (disgusting), so I did not realize sheep stomachs were quite so large.

Amsterdam Day 2

Today is the last full day of our trip, and we had excellent weather for it.

After Dutch Apple and Ginger pancakes with stroop for breakfast, we headed to the Van Gogh Museum. The museum was huge and it had far more paintings than I was expecting. The museum included information about Van Gogh’s life and that of his family, as well as talking about other artists and paintings that had influenced him. The paintings were ordered from his earliest to latest, so you could easily see his progression. Well worth seeing.

Albert Cuypmarkt – A daily street market we walked down. Lots of underpants.

A sidewalk flower market.

This is a statue of Rembrandt in the aptly named Rembrandt Square. The sign in front of the statue was unreadable, but we think this statue of Rembrandt is surrounded by people in his paintings.

A nice art deco building that is now used as a movie theater.

C wanted to make sure to see the Friday book market. We found an English language book stall and got a few books. J and the kids were excited to find the sequel to “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome K Jerome. C also got a copy of “Sense and Sensibility,” so we are carrying two English books back to England. B is trying out a James Thurber, so we do have one American represented.

Yet another canal view.

Another canal view with a ton of bikes. I still can’t believe how many bikes there are over here.

This afternoon we did a boat ride that took us through several canals and out to a bit of the harbor.

Canal from the boat.

Nice building with boats. A lot of the “houseboats” here seem to really be boats rather than the kind one sees on Lake Union.

This is a famous canal with seven bridges that are all the same. The sun wasn’t cooperating, so all seven can’t really be seen.

I am so glad that I don’t have to parallel park here. You really pay the price here if you misjudge exactly where you are. Most streets have no curbs along the canal.

More canal.

This canal is Singel and is supposed to be the fanciest of the Amsterdam canals.

Amsterdam Day 1

Another long day of sightseeing today. The weather is warmer than Berlin, and we are still lucky in the rain department. I guess it hasn’t rained since we brought umbrellas.

We are enjoying Amsterdam so far and being very careful to stay out of certain parts of town. It is funny that coffee shops are not coffee shops here. The kids have gotten an education and are now adept at identifying that stinky “coffee shop” smell.

A nice view this morning while trying to find breakfast.

Another one. There are a lot of these types of pictures today, and I expect more tomorrow.

The Royal Palace.

Our first stop of the day was the Anne Frank House. Thankfully, we bought tickets online before leaving home, so we didn’t have to wait in the ginormous line, which also had that “coffee shop” smell. The original outside has been completely covered up, but the interior is exactly how she would have known, minus the furniture. I am glad I had the kids read the Diary of Anne Frank before coming because they knew what to expect, and I think they got more out of it. One of the saddest things we saw inside was a growth chart of the wall for both Anne and her older sister.

This is the view outside of Anne Frank’s House and likely one she saw regularly.

Westerkerk.

Much of the Westerkerk interior has been renovated to the point that the old world charm is gone. The organ is very impressive and it is known for the painted panels.

A nice street.

This building is the Eyeglasses Museum. We didn’t go in, but we were surprised that such a thing existed. I guess there’s a museum for everything.

Another canal.

A building I liked.

We have already forgotten what this is. Looks nice, though.

Rembrandt’s House, which is now a museum.

Rembrandt lived in this house for almost 20 years, only leaving when he declared bankruptcy. The house was turned into a museum many years later but they still have entire inventory of his house from the bankruptcy hearings, and Rembrandt had made some pictures of the interior so they had an idea of what it looked like.

This is the kitchen.

This is a very short bed, called a box bed, and it is thought the cook slept here. The audioguide told us that the beds were really short during the Renaissance because people believed it unhealthy to sleep prone because all the blood rushed to your head and they all slept mostly in a sitting position.

The fireplace in the room where Rembrandt sold his paintings. The columns are marble, the mantel is wood painted to look like marble.

A close up of the tiles.

Rembrandt’s studio. He had this studio for painting and another one for doing engravings.

The wood stove in the studio.

Another view.

More views.

I tried to get an action shot of the crazy bikers in this town. Pedestrians are at a major disadvantage here between the cars and bicycles. For some reason, mopeds are allowed to use the bikes lanes, too. Crossing the street here is like playing the game of frogger because you can only go one section at a time because there is so much to watch out for. The street where we are staying has a two-way bike lane, two-way car traffic, and then another two-way bike lane. That’s a lot of directions to look just cross a single street.

We walked through the flower market and saw lots of tulip bulbs for sale.

Tulips.

An Art Nouveau building we passed.

This was an interesting square we happened upon. It is called Begijnhof and housed Beguines who were Catholic women who were like nuns but didn’t want to live in a Convent and never took their vows. The Beguines lived here in wooden houses which were all destroyed in two fires in the 15th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the houses were rebuilt. The area is now owned by the Begijnhof Foundation and still houses only women.

We were wild and crazy and rented a houseboat here. When I rented it, I expected more house and less boat, but we are in a mostly-boat situation here. It is OK, but the boats are side by side and so J and I have people walking over our heads in our room to get to their boats. We had people walking over the metal above our heads until after 1am last night. That was not something I considered when renting this.

We went to an Italian place for dinner, and J ordered green tagliatelle with parmesan cheese. The children, especially C, was mortified when our singing waiter rolled this big wheel of cheese to our table so that J’s hot pasta could be stirred around in it prior to serving. And there was some flaming booze involved.

Berlin to Amsterdam

We have been walking around 10 miles per day the last few days, so our feet enjoyed today’s break while we rode the train from Berlin to Amsterdam.

The Berlin central train station on our way out. The red thing on the right is either a fire alarm or a robot security guard.

Amsterdam has a really nice train station.

We got here after dark, and iPhones are not known for their ability to do night photos, so I only took a few. Amsterdam is nice at night. We were careful about where we went though.

A street leading towards Amsterdam’s China Town. We ended up having some decent Italian, but prices are definitely higher here.

Another street. Down there is where we don’t go.

The Nieuwmarkt.

Berlin Day 4

We originally had plans to go to the Berlin Zoo, but then we read the reviews. Most were very good, but the bad ones were really bad. They talked about the small cages and pacing animals, both things we don’t want to see. We ended up walking near the zoo this afternoon and we saw a pacing rhino and some of the small cages that people talked about. We are glad we didn’t go to this zoo and we will be happy with the much better Seattle and London zoos.

First stop of the day was the Berlin Natural History Museum.

The Berlin Natural History Museum has the largest dinosaur skeleton in the world. It is a brachiosaurus brancal and the smaller one is a dysalotosaurus.

This is a fossil of a archaeopteryx found in 1874 in Germany. It is considered the most complete fossil of this species in the world. The man who found it traded it to a scientist for a cow.

We all thought this looked like a dragon skull, but it is a stygimoloch spinifer found in North Dakota.

A lungfish, a fish that has been on Earth for 400 million years. This thing was swimming around, bumping into the side and digging in the rocks at the bottom.

This was our favorite room and will be a family story for years. We especially enjoyed the name given to this room by the Germans – the “Wet Specimen Room.” It was very creepy, and looked like something out of Harry Potter. We did not go into the room called “Masterpieces of Taxidermy.” Masterpieces or not, we don’t like seeing that stuff.

Jar after jar after jar of Wet Specimens.

And they went floor to ceiling. Creepy.

A mineral sample from a land far, far away.

The New Synagogue in the Jewish section of Berlin.

The former headquarters of the Spartacus League, the predecessor of the post-WW1 Communist Party.

Tiles in one of the interior courtyards of Hackescher Hof, which is a set of connected courtyards.

Another of the tiled buildings in the square.

The third kind. There were several buildings with each of the tile designs in the square.

This is the Hackescher Markt area. It has a subway line on the top and lots of restaurants at street level. It’s a very nice old brick building.

We were walking to our next destination and passed this nice Art Deco building that looked a lot like the ones we saw in Brussels. This one needs some cleaning.

J wanted to come to this cemetery because it’s full of famous German writers. This is Bertholt Brecht, which we took mostly because he’s famous.

This is Johann Fichte, a German philosopher.

The main reason we came was to visit Hegel. J had to study up on him in school.

We came to this grave because the guide book told us it was worth seeing. As people who like Art Deco, we were glad to have seen this one.

We have now ridden on all modes of Berlin in-city transportation: busses, subway and tram. Tomorrow we will take a train.

We decided to take a walk through another part of the Tiergarten on our way back to the hotel for a break before dinner.

A nice bridge in the park.

Berlin Day 3

Today was museum day, and we all have the achey feet to prove it. We don’t typically do two museums in a day, but the museum pass here is the way to go for saving some money.

The weather today was more gray, but it never rained and it was about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday. We all appreciated the higher temperature.

The first museum of the day was the Pergamon Museum, which houses antiquities. This museum is on Museum Island, which is currently going through a massive restoration and won’t be complete for another 10 years. There must be 20 cranes in this area alone.

The Ishtar Gate is one of the major things to see in this museum. This is a model of the unbelievably large entrance to Babylon. I took a picture of the model because all the separate pieces are so huge that it’s hard to believe how it used to look.

And the real thing. One of the main gates. They have replaced some of the solid blue bricks, but the dragons, bulls and lions are the real thing.

One of the long entrance walls.

A close up of a lion.

A Roman market gate from ca 100AD from the town of Miletus. It is huge.

Now we are in the Islamic art section. I could not find the sign for this one that told me what this was. I just liked it.

This is part of the wall from the Desert Palace of Mshatta which is 30 miles south of Amman, Jordan and was built around 706 AD. This stuff is from the era when European explorers in pith helmets would just cart everything back home.

This is the Aleppo Room. This was a room in a private house in Aleppo that was given this fancy paint job in the early 1600s. This was a good sized room, but it was impossible to photograph in its entirety.

We are taking a lunch break and a walk prior to tackling museum number two. This is a part of the former East Berlin called the Nikolai Quarter. It was rebuilt to give it a medieval feel. The walls are far too straight for it to look authentic.

Another street.

A little square.

We are now walking back to Museum Island.

This is the Altes Museum, which we didn’t go into. We are now going into the Neues Museum which is where the Ancient Egyptian objects are housed.

I am always amazed that glass objects survive. This is an amphora with burnt bones.

An ancient Roman buried with roof tiles. Kids always like a good skeleton and this place had lots of ancient bones of all sorts.

This is one of the highlights of this museum – The Berlin Gold Hat. It is considered a masterpiece of Bronze Age goldsmithing. The decorations are amazing and they contain cylindrical calculations determining the 19 year cycle of the sun and the moon.

This is the other highlight of the museum. I had to take this picture from the internet because no photos were allowed. This is a 3300 year old bust of Nefertiti.

The rooms themselves in this museum were also interesting. This museum was almost completely destroyed in the war and wasn’t reopened until 2009. And large numbers of antiquities were taken by the Russians during WW2.

After the museum, we walked back through the square where the famous concert hall is. It’s much easier to see in the daylight.

A super fancy mall we walked through to get to the other side of the block.

We are now at Checkpoint Charlie. Not sure who the portrait is of.

The original sign. We also saw lists of the many escapes, some successful and some not, through the checkpoint.

The old guard post. I had to take it far enough back into to get the super massive McDonald’s right across the street. What could be more American?

A section of the wall that is still standing. It was actually knocked down, but they put it back up as a reminder.

They also kept the inner section of the wall here. This is right by the Holocaust museum.

J has been trying to spot all the Trabants that he can find. We have seen quite a few, but this one is the most colorful.

So many restaurants in Berlin advertise this excellent sounding specialty. I could have just said the name of the dish, but this photo is so drool inducing that I thought it must be included.

The bricks in the street mark where the Berlin wall once stood. These bricks run all through the city.

Berlin Day 2

We were lucky and had a nice blue sky today, but it was still dang cold, especially when the wind came up. Berlin has a lot to offer, as we saw today. I wish they offered a bit more heat to the poor tourists.

The sad sign outside the subway station we have been using near our hotel. The sign says “topography of terror – that we may never be allowed to forget.”

Very pointy and tall building we saw on our way to the Reichstag.

This is the Reichstag. We came here to climb up into the glass dome that can be kinda seen in the top center of the building.

The front of the building. It suffered arson in 1933 and fighting in WW2. The majority of this building has been rebuilt, and they only preserved the facade.

The bottom of the dome from the inside. Coming into the dome is free, but tickets need to be booked ahead online.

The top of the dome is open, as are vents all along the sides, so it was not warm in here. It afforded really nice views and an interesting photo display of the history of this building.

A view over the Tiergarten park.

Government offices and embassies along the river.

This is the main government building where Parliament is. The entire roof is covered in solar panels.

This is a memorial for the Sinti and Roma people who were persecuted and killed for being “gypsies” between 1933-45.

The Brandenburg gate which was built starting in 1788. It has also taken a beating.

Immediately next to the Brandenburg Gate is the American Embassy. We didn’t say hi.

Some Berlin artists participate in a charity project wherein they make these “Buddy Bears,” with proceeds going to various charities. This is the one sponsored by the US.

Next to the American Embassy is this memorial to Holocaust victims called “The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.”

Walking in the exhibit. The ground undulated below, and the heights of the columns varied. It felt claustrophobic in parts, and the rows to the front and the sides were perfectly straight.

A statue of Geothe. J studied German literary history in school, so we figured we had to take a picture.

We walked next to the church with the ruined top. This church, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, was originally built in 1890 but was badly damaged in 1943. The church actually used to be a lot larger.

We took a break this afternoon to get in from the cold and to allow the kids to swim in the hotel’s tiny pool. The kids said the water was cold. The pool is in the same room as a sauna, and the hotel calls it the “spa area,” so maybe they have the water cold intentionally.

After the break, we went out for more sightseeing and dinner. We went to an area called Gendarmenmarkt, which the guide book told us to go and see. There are several nice building here, but it was unfortunately still really cold.

This building is the French Cathedral.

This is the Konzerthaus. Both of these buildings were heavily damaged in the war.

Our guide book also told us to see the Humboldt University building.

This was hard to capture, but it is an art monument to memorialize the 25,000 books that the Nazis took from the university and burned in this square.

I had no idea that this was a thing, but it is. These figures are the walk and stop people that you see on the traffic lights here. C did point out that these figures seem to only be used in the touristy areas, but they are popular enough that we have seen several stores dedicated to merchandise surrounding them. We did take advantage of these open stores twice today by standing in them to get warm without buying anything. We just didn’t have a need for a dish towel decorated with these things.

No, this signature that they chose to highlight is not from 1985, it is from last year. As a person who has never seen Baywatch, I don’t understand the excitement around “The Hoff.”

We had an interesting dinner experience. We found a German pub like place that had a vegetarian section on the menu. Shocking. We actually had five things to choose from, and we tried three of them. That’s more options than we get a lot of places. The kids ordered veggie burgers which turned out to be two potato patties as the buns and the patty was cucumber slices, tomato and lettuce and with yogurt. These were well received.