On Thursday 5th September I travelled to Beauvais in France with Ryanair to visit the Somme and Cambrai battlefields.
I arrived at Leeds Bradford Airport around 09.30 for a departure at 11.35 and went to the bag drop which wasn't self bag drop but manned so there was a bit of a queue as there was only one desk open for Ryanair. After that it was straight through to security and as there was no queue for that so it was pretty quick. I'm glad I never paid any extra for fast track security as it would have a complete waste of money.
After waiting in the departures area for a while I made my way to gate 5 to board my flight to Beauvais. The aircraft taking me to France was EI-IFX a Boeing 737 8200 MAX which is 21 months old. This was my first time flying on one of Ryanair MAXs which have 197 seats compared to the 189 of a normal 737 MAX 8. Surprisingly the leg room was quite good and the seatbelts fitted me, being a person of large size I usually require seatbelt extensions on Ryanair flights but not with other airlines who operate Boeing 737s. The seat though was uncomfortable, it felt like i was sitting on a wooden bench, but thankfully the flight was only for an hour after which we landed at Beauvais and I quickly went through immigration and collected my checked bag and then walked over to the car hire centre to pickup my hire car for the next 5 days. Once I got my car I was then able to drive to my hotel in Albert which was about 1 1/ 4 hour drive north from Beauvais past the city of Amiens and which was where i was to stay for the next 4 nights.
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For the next 3 days I visited the various memorials like the Guards, Welsh and New Zealand Division's memorials, I visited the some of the military cemeteries like the Guards, Pozieres and Thiepval cemeteries. Thiepval also has an amazing memorial with the names of 72,000 missing soldiers from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and South Africa on it who all died while fighting in the Somme area between 1916 & 1918. I also visited museums at Thiepval, Peronne, Flesquieres and Albert which were all about the Great War and all interesting in their own ways and I looked to visit some of the places where my Grandfather had fought with the Welsh Guards during the Somme campaign from September 1916-December 1916 and when he was wounded in the Battle of Cambrai in December 1917.
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After a really interesting and at times sad 3 days visiting the various sites in the Somme and Cambrai area it was time to leave my hotel, which was the Ibis in Albert and head back to Beauvais airport drop off my hire car and catch my flight back to Leeds. My flight at Beauvais was from Terminal 1. Beauvais isn't a large airport and i would describe it as well functional. The landside departure area has a few coffee shop type outlets and the check in area has roughly 20 desks. I wasn't allowed to drop off my checked bag until around 10.45 which was 2 hours before my departure but there is a seating area to wait in and then I was able to head through security which was pretty quick and did some shopping in the small duty free area. The main concourse had 3 gates and the area was pretty crowded with lots of people sitting on the floor but my flight was from D gate which was past passport control into another area which at the time was less crowded and I was able to get a seat there and watch some of the aircraft movements which included the 737 800 that would take me back to Leeds. This aircraft was the 9 year old 9H-QAO and was Beauvais based. After doing the usual Ryanair boarding but not boarding but this time out on the apron by the aircraft i boarded by the back steps and took my seat for the flight home. This aircraft had the older but more comfortable seats, though the seatbelt didn't fit as usual. The flight home took about an hour and was uneventful until the landing at Leeds which felt quite hard but that does seem to be the norm for Ryanair in general. After deboarding we were bussed the short distance, we probably could've walked, to immigration and then once through there picked up my checked bag and I was outside heading to the free drop off car park in under 30 minutes.
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Overall I had a great trip and would definitely do a battlefield tour again. Although Leeds Bradford isn't my number 1 favourite airport, it is good to be able to fly locally to a decent amount of destinations and although I found Beauvais Terminal 1 as basic being able to use Beauvais for my trip probably helped shave off another 1 hours driving time if I'd had to use Paris CDG. Ryanair were once again a good airline, they got me where I needed to go and back again at a reasonable price, £103 return fare with checked bag and I've no doubt I'll fly with them again from Leeds Bradford airport and other airports.
I arrived at Leeds Bradford Airport around 09.30 for a departure at 11.35 and went to the bag drop which wasn't self bag drop but manned so there was a bit of a queue as there was only one desk open for Ryanair. After that it was straight through to security and as there was no queue for that so it was pretty quick. I'm glad I never paid any extra for fast track security as it would have a complete waste of money.
After waiting in the departures area for a while I made my way to gate 5 to board my flight to Beauvais. The aircraft taking me to France was EI-IFX a Boeing 737 8200 MAX which is 21 months old. This was my first time flying on one of Ryanair MAXs which have 197 seats compared to the 189 of a normal 737 MAX 8. Surprisingly the leg room was quite good and the seatbelts fitted me, being a person of large size I usually require seatbelt extensions on Ryanair flights but not with other airlines who operate Boeing 737s. The seat though was uncomfortable, it felt like i was sitting on a wooden bench, but thankfully the flight was only for an hour after which we landed at Beauvais and I quickly went through immigration and collected my checked bag and then walked over to the car hire centre to pickup my hire car for the next 5 days. Once I got my car I was then able to drive to my hotel in Albert which was about 1 1/ 4 hour drive north from Beauvais past the city of Amiens and which was where i was to stay for the next 4 nights.
View media item 18971
View media item 19009
View media item 19010
View media item 19011
For the next 3 days I visited the various memorials like the Guards, Welsh and New Zealand Division's memorials, I visited the some of the military cemeteries like the Guards, Pozieres and Thiepval cemeteries. Thiepval also has an amazing memorial with the names of 72,000 missing soldiers from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and South Africa on it who all died while fighting in the Somme area between 1916 & 1918. I also visited museums at Thiepval, Peronne, Flesquieres and Albert which were all about the Great War and all interesting in their own ways and I looked to visit some of the places where my Grandfather had fought with the Welsh Guards during the Somme campaign from September 1916-December 1916 and when he was wounded in the Battle of Cambrai in December 1917.
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View media item 18991
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After a really interesting and at times sad 3 days visiting the various sites in the Somme and Cambrai area it was time to leave my hotel, which was the Ibis in Albert and head back to Beauvais airport drop off my hire car and catch my flight back to Leeds. My flight at Beauvais was from Terminal 1. Beauvais isn't a large airport and i would describe it as well functional. The landside departure area has a few coffee shop type outlets and the check in area has roughly 20 desks. I wasn't allowed to drop off my checked bag until around 10.45 which was 2 hours before my departure but there is a seating area to wait in and then I was able to head through security which was pretty quick and did some shopping in the small duty free area. The main concourse had 3 gates and the area was pretty crowded with lots of people sitting on the floor but my flight was from D gate which was past passport control into another area which at the time was less crowded and I was able to get a seat there and watch some of the aircraft movements which included the 737 800 that would take me back to Leeds. This aircraft was the 9 year old 9H-QAO and was Beauvais based. After doing the usual Ryanair boarding but not boarding but this time out on the apron by the aircraft i boarded by the back steps and took my seat for the flight home. This aircraft had the older but more comfortable seats, though the seatbelt didn't fit as usual. The flight home took about an hour and was uneventful until the landing at Leeds which felt quite hard but that does seem to be the norm for Ryanair in general. After deboarding we were bussed the short distance, we probably could've walked, to immigration and then once through there picked up my checked bag and I was outside heading to the free drop off car park in under 30 minutes.
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Overall I had a great trip and would definitely do a battlefield tour again. Although Leeds Bradford isn't my number 1 favourite airport, it is good to be able to fly locally to a decent amount of destinations and although I found Beauvais Terminal 1 as basic being able to use Beauvais for my trip probably helped shave off another 1 hours driving time if I'd had to use Paris CDG. Ryanair were once again a good airline, they got me where I needed to go and back again at a reasonable price, £103 return fare with checked bag and I've no doubt I'll fly with them again from Leeds Bradford airport and other airports.
