A family day out at Beamish

If you are a regular reader, you will know that before Christmas James and Mummy were lucky enough to do an overnight sleepover with our Beaver Colony at Beamish The Living Museum Of The North. We came back full of stories about what we had done and saying we wanted to take Daddy and Freddie next time!

So fast forward to January and Beamish had a competition on Instagram to win a family unlimited year long pass and well mummy only went and won it!!

For us to get to Beamish we had to catch the 28 or the 28A bus from Eldon Square bus station. The buses run every half hour at quarter past and quarter to the hour Monday to Saturday and every hour on a Sunday. Click here for the Go North East timetable.

So Saturday started early with mummy putting our pack lunches together, a lot had been pre made in the days before and frozen so all we had to do was put them in the cool bag. We decided to take our lunch with us as it would be safer for Freddie with his food allergies. 

We then got the bus from our terminal into Newcastle city centre and then we walked across from Haymarket to Eldon Square to catch the bus down to Beamish. A family explorer bus ticket which we could use on both Stagecoach and Go North East cost us £20.60, as it was cheaper than buying separate tickets on each operator. 

The bus ride down was about 45 minutes and it was a long hard trip as we had decided to let Freddie ride out of his stroller!! He literally would not sit still!

We had got the 0845 bus from Eldon Square bus station. In reality we could have got the 0915 bus and still been at Beamish for opening. 

With it being January a few bits were closed like the steam train, Pockerley waggonway and also the chip shop. The boys were gutted the steam train was not running. 

The first thing we did was get the tram from the main entrance down to the pit village! This wasn't too bad till we came to get off and Freddie threw a massive strop! He wanted to stay on the tram! We stopped to see the pit poneys and the goats. We then had a look in the school and the church. The boys then went and had a look in the houses with daddy. 

We then went and looked in the engine sheds which both the boys were loving! Then we went to do the mine. I was a little concerned about taking Freddie in but he did wear his hat. We started off down the mine and got to the first little section and this is where Freddie decided he didn't like it and wanted to take the hard hat off so mummy took him back out while daddy and James continued on!

After we finished in the pit village we decided to walk down to the town. We walked via the disabled access to the station where we found the train was not running which really upset the boys. Once we walked into the town we decided to go and have an early lunch in the park, before we went to the sweet shop and then wandered round the bank and the masonic hall before going back to see how the sweets are made!

James loved being back in the masonic hall as he was able to show daddy the exact spot where he slept when we did the sleepover back. We then took the built in lift upstairs in the masonic hall to show James and daddy where mummy slept on the sleepover!

Once we had finished watching the sweets being made and having a sample of the ones we had watched being made. We got the tram back to the main entrance

and after a quick visit to the gift shop we made it to the bus stop in time for the 1315 bus back to Newcastle. This time we left Freddie in his stroller and he had a nice sleep on his way back to town.

Since we now have an unlimited annual pass to Beamish we are already planning on our next visit hopefully in the Half Term holiday!