Beamish Open Air Museum - Our First Visit Since Re-Opening!

On Friday, 20th March one of our 'happy places' Beamish Open Air Museum closed its doors due to the current pandemic. The museum is primarily a charity meaning it really does rely on ticket sales and visitors buying gifts, food etc on-site to keep going. Thankfully they officially reopened on Thursday, 23rd July 2020 operating with pre-book a timed entry slot system. 
Our annual passes (the Beamish Unlimited ticket/annual pass is the exact same price as a day ticket!) had run out during the lockdown but of course, we were always going to renew as we always do and had actually planned on upgrading to the Friends of Beamish this year anyway. Therefore once the dates were available for the re-opening we jumped online, bought our membership tickets and reserved a slot!

We chose Saturday the 1st of August for our return purely because currently, Mr H's only day off is a Saturday...unfortunately. Usually, we prefer to do things midweek to avoid any crowds and especially children, haha, but with lockdown, summer holidays and weekends everything is all muddled these days anyway. 

If you read my previous post, Countdown to Disney 2020 // Honeymoon Cancellation Update , you'll know that the previous weekend was my first venture out into a public space and it went extremely badly. So it's safe to say I was super trepidatious! I knew Beamish themselves had put so much time, money and effort into making the museum as safe and comfortable as possible, but we all know it's the general public that cause the problems..!

Our slot was the first one, 10-10.45 and we live only 20/25minutes away so we arrived for 10.10 and our mini adventure began.

You'd never be able to tell from the photos in this post, I am very strategical in my photo taking, but it was much busier than I expected considering the time slot entry system. Once you were in you could stay all day so I can only imagine that if the same amount of people came in during each time slot, it'd be pretty packed by the end of the day. I later saw online that many people thought it was quiet, though having visited 8 times last year in all different seasons, on all different days, I still think it was quite busy for apparently running a lower capacity.

Many people also said they found their visit was much different to normal, and again I can't relate because we don't often go into buildings or busy public places anyway. Upon entry, we headed the opposite direction to the majority of the crowds, like always. Working our way around to the places we wanted to visit we veered to the less populated attractions within those, like always. When people got closer than about 5 meters I put a spurt on and moved away, like always!

To be honest, the only real differences I noticed were the queuing system at the entrance, that most people wore masks when going indoors, the vehicles were not running, there were lots of signs (it was a pro and a con that they were made to fit in with the period style because they looked great but I think fewer people took notice because let's face it not everyone looks at the details) and there were hand sanitizing machines dotted around. I assume the most difference would have been noticeable in the town but we didn't pop down there this time. 

Obviously my anxiety etc did rear its unattractive head. I had a mini break down and cry at the ticket tills and a few little stresses when people walked too close to us, but overall it was good to be back at Beamish.
I know that mask rules do not stipulate they should be worn in public outdoors and most people are perfectly happy walking directly past or standing near others without distancing but I am terrified. I have been social distancing for bloomin' years as it is, so now I'm giving off extra 'stay away from me' instincts!
Anyway, we had a lovely walk together, was graced with some fabulous sunshine followed by a tiny outburst of rain and got to breathe some fresh air.
Until next time!