Diana's Celtic Tour Day 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Z Michelson Travel Podcast, where
every journey is a story waitingto be told.
I'm your host, z Michelson, andI'm so excited to take you on a
ride through the world's mostincredible destinations, hidden
gems and unforgettableexperiences.
Whether you're a seasonedtraveler or just starting to

(00:22):
plan your next getaway, you'rein the right place.
Each episode, we'll be divinginto everything from must-see
landmarks to off-the-beaten-pathtreasures, speaking with locals
and travel experts and sharingstories that will inspire your
next adventure.
So sit back, relax and let'swander the world together, one

(00:46):
destination at a time.
Are you ready?
Let's get started.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hi and welcome to this episode of Zee Michelson
with Diana of Celtic Tours.
She is talking all about hertrip to Ireland.
This is going to be her day twoover in Ireland, which I'm very
excited about because she'smoved on from Dublin to Kilkenny
.
Diana, welcome and talk aboutthis new day for you.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Thank you, I'm very excited about this day.
And how are you excited?
Oh, kilkenny was just sobeautiful.
Oh, it was just so beautiful.
Kilkenny was just so beautiful,so it's green.
Yeah, oh, it was not at allwhat I expected it to be.
First of all, we did stop at anestate.

(01:39):
It was called La Rath Estate.
Spell that L-Y-P-A, excuse me,l-y-r-t-h.
La Rath.
The H is silent.
Yeah, believe me, I had todouble check full time, not La
Rath, la Rath, la Rath Estate,and it is a five-star hotel and

(02:02):
it is, and that's where youstayed.
No, we actually just did a stopthere where we did an afternoon
tea.
They showed us around thegrounds and, oh my goodness, it
is about 10 minutes fromkilkenny, so, um, this would be
for high-end clients because itis a spa resort it's really

(02:23):
really high end just Just abeautiful, beautiful place.
However, there are things thatyou can do there without having
to stay there.
Oh, the grounds are about 170acres.
That's a lot Irish countryside.
Yeah, that's a lot Beautiful,beautiful countryside and they
have lakes and historicalgardens and woodlands and the

(02:44):
history is a 17th century estatehouse, and what they did is
they started with the house andthen, of course, went into more
of a modern day extension of thehotel.
So it kind of has both you knowthe old, old farmhouse with the
modern day Now.
Was this part of your tour?
It was actually part of ourtour.

(03:06):
This was something that we,everything that we do from this
point on, was part of our touryes.
Everything that we do.
Yep, the first day was, youknow, kind of exploring on my
own, getting acclimated to thetime, exactly, exactly.
So they actually did preservethe old house and it's very.
They keep it very clean.
They have pictures of theoriginal owners.

(03:26):
And then they went ahead, ofcourse, and went from there.
So they grew it from there andnow it has 141 unique bedrooms.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Wow, 140.
And even though you folks didnot stay there on this tour, it
is possible that if somebodywants to Celtic Tours can make
that plan for you.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I like that so let me tell you, besides the
award-winning spa that they have, let me tell you what else they
have.
They have falconry oh really,Archery, oh nice that you can
actually do.
And these are things that youcan actually book without having
to stay there.
Right, so we can actually dothat.
So if they're staying inKilkenny and they don't want to
stay at the estate, we canactually book the falconry where

(04:06):
they can actually go see thepower works.
And John and his wife I can'tremember his wife's name,
unfortunately, but they areactually the inners of the
falconry there oh, okay, and hehas owls and falcons.
He actually even has an eagleoh an eagle, oh an eagle Eagle.

(04:29):
I think it was a Parisian eaglethat he pretty much got all of
these from babies and raisedthem himself.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Oh, and this is all on this property.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
It was all on the estate.
Wow, yeah, that you can dothere on the estate Wow.
It was just amazing to see allthe birds and to listen to what
he had to say about them, and heknows them all by name and
knows their different demeanorsand their attitudes.
It was really reallyinteresting.
Unfortunately, the winds wereso strong that day that we were

(04:58):
there we couldn't fly the birds,but he told us a story about
when the birds did fly and whenthey get lost and he has to go
track them.
So it was just really reallyamazing experience.
However, I was able to hold anowl.
Oh, wow, an owl, actually, youknow where they give you the
glove and the owl actually cameand I was able to pet the owl.

(05:20):
Was it a big owl it was a smalllittle baby.
It was a blue, blue owl.
I'm sorry I don't know the name, but it was so cute, cute
little owl.
Cute little owl.
Oh, just such a great, greatexperience.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
And this was on the tour this was on the tour, and
did you also get to do thearchery?
I did, and I believe I'm prettygood at it.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
So the archery they had all fed up so they did take
us out to the archery and wewent out there and he taught us
how to pull the bow, showed usthe bows and was actually able
to shoot a couple of arrows.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
I did pretty good, I hit the target, very cool.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
I hit the target.
That's what it matters.
Or you hit the target That'llwork Now.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Did you have the tea before or after your adventure?

Speaker 3 (06:03):
Some tea.
After that we had a high tea.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
High tea yes.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
And with lovely little sandwiches.
And, of course, you know youget teas.
I got an herbal wild berry tea,which was amazing, and we got
to sit and learn more about theestate.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
So first they bring you around to all the different
things that we can experienceand then you sit down and relax
and have the high tea, yep,which is nice.
So high tea was about 4 o'clockin the afternoon, actually it
was probably around 2 o'clock.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, okay, a little early, a little early, we had to
be on our way.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
So, yeah, we had to be on our way.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
So where did you stay ?
To Kilkenny Castle, and we wereable to see the castle itself
and we learned all about theButler family who owned the
castle for so many years.
And did you know?
That's how we got the wordButler.
Yeah, so again the history at.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Kilkenny.
It was just spectacular.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
And this was.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Kilkenny Castle that you were at.
This was Kilkenny Castle, soyou know, and this was Kilkenny
Castle that you were at.
This was Kilkenny Castle, soyou know, my experience with
castles is they're not thatsmall.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Nope, they're not.
There is a little bit ofwalking.
There is a little bit ofwalking.
Yeah, now this entire castlehas been re-renovated, so they
have some of the original thingsin there and then they have a

(07:31):
little bit more modern, becausethey had to bring in a little up
, right, oh yeah, but do peoplestill live there?
Is it just a tourist?
No, no, it's just a touristattraction right now.
Yeah, so again, you have a lotof stairs, so a lot of climbing
where you're doing stairs andthey have a nice little cafe as
you're exiting.
So you know you can again exitand have more to drink or more
tea.
So it was a a very, verybeautiful castle, but the
history of the Butler family wasjust really amazing.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
So much history that you're learning on your journey
there.
Yep Day one you've seen a lotof history.
Day two now you're learningabout all these different places
and learning history behindthese places, and it's amazing
to see that they are keepingthese buildings.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, history is very , very important to the Irish.
They really love their historyand they want to maintain that
as much as possible.
So a lot of these old castlesthat are being refurbished is
because of the Irish government.
They want them to keep these sothat people will come and
experience the history and learnthe history of the Irish.

(08:32):
Now, how long did that tour take?
It was probably about two hourstotal.
Yeah, Of course we had a tourguide.
He walked us through the entirething and gave us all of the
history, and in each room andtalked about the main dining
room and, of course, the familydining room, and then they had a
giant hall.
Every castle has a dance hall,of course you everybody was

(08:55):
dancing, yeah, yep.
So he took us through and thenwe got a little time for
ourselves.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Where you can, it can just walk around a little bit
more.
Yeah, yeah, so I mean, and youdid that after the other, so
yeah so.
So now it's getting late in theday.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
It's getting a little late, yeah, so it's probably
about 4.30, 5 o'clock in theafternoon, and then we went
ahead and went to our hotel.
And we stayed at the PembrokeHotel.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Pembroke.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, and it was right there in Kilkenny, right
in the heart of.
Kilkenny, yeah right in theheart and I think my favorite
part of the entire experience atthe Pembroke Hotel was my
Nespresso machine in my room.
Nespresso, nespresso in my room.
Yeah, the rooms were veryspacious, beautiful Again, just

(09:48):
a beautiful hotel.
I think it's a four-star hotel.
But also we had dinner thatevening and chef Ken, who is an
actual Michelin award winningchef, is the chef for this hotel
, at the at the Pembroke.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah, so when did you have that?

Speaker 3 (10:00):
I actually had a fish and chips that day.
I didn't want to miss my fishand chips, but the way he made
it it was more of flash fried.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
It wasn't deep fried and it was a very large piece of
fish.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
It was an entire fish and he kind of flash fried it
and then set it on a beautifulbed, of course, of potatoes.
So I had to have my fish andchips.
But it was amazing and otherpeople.
There was a Guinness stew.
Somebody had Amazing, and thiswas included.
This was amazing.
And other people there wereother.
There was a Guinness stew.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Somebody had Amazing and this was included this was
included, yep, okay, so peopleneed to know that they can eat
very well.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, While they're not.
Yeah, he's very, very healthconscious.
He's a very health consciouschef.
A lot of his meals he like heflash fries.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Right.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
So he's very fries, and so he's very, very health
conscious when he's making his alot of his boots there at the
pembroke.
So at the pembroke you had abeautiful womb.
Now a lot of people aren'taware that when you travel
overseas it's not like ourhotels.
Here.
You know where you'll haveking-sized beds in every room.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
So what size bed did you have?
I actually had a king size bed.
Well, I did.
However, they're kings, so theycall their kings super king,
super kings, and then we callour king a king, and then our
queens are their king.
Oh so they don't have a queensize bed, right?

(11:28):
They have king beds and thenthey have super king beds, right
?
So, if you want a very largebed, it would be a super king,
and if you want a queen bed,then it would be a king bed.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Now, a lot of people do ask me what if I'm traveling
by myself?
Is there solo?

Speaker 3 (11:42):
pricing.
There is solo pricing.
There's typically a singlesupplement, and that is because
the hotels do require singlesupplement supplement, and that
is because the hotels do requiresingle supplement.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Pricing is typically based on double occupancy Right
or if somebody wants you know,says I need to go.
Nobody wants to come with me,I'm going.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
I'm going.
Yeah, I was a single, I wentall by myself.
Let's have a mini with me.
But and it was really, reallynice when I got to this
particular place of course itnever shortens the food, ever.
They give you a little petitein your room and you get there
as a welcome.
So and of course, like I said,the Nespresso machine had to
have a Nespresso.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Well, we're talking a lot about dinners.
What's for breakfast?

Speaker 3 (12:22):
So breakfast, typically at all of the actually
of all the hotels that we wentto, it was a open breakfast,
like a continental breakfastwhere you can go.
They had, of course, pastries,they had cheeses with meats,
they had yogurts and fruitcereals.
But you could also order.

(12:43):
You could have somebody come upto you and say would you like
to have some eggs or would youlike to have a typical Irish?
This would be your bangers.
And right, you're black, my owneating.
You can also order that as well.
And again, breakfast is includedin our tours yeah, all of our
tours, breakfast is included sobreakfast is always there.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
so, yeah, eat hearty before you go to the store.
You guys do a lot of walking.
People do need to know that.
Can people that have somerestrictions go on some of these
tours?

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Yes, yeah, without a doubt, we were a little fast
paced because I took 30 travelagents with me, so we were a
little bit fast paced and travelagents want to see the next
thing yeah they want to see thenext thing, exactly, exactly so.
But yes, they can move at theirown pace If they'd like to, if
they'd like to sit one out, orif they just want to sit in
gardeners instead of doing anentire tour.

(13:31):
They can do anything that they'dlike.
It's not necessary for them todo every single thing if they
feel like they'd make it.
If they need to take a break,they can take a break.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Exactly Well that people want to know.
That you know, because thereare more and more people that
are a little bit older, yeah,that are traveling, when they
might be a little morerestricted, maybe walking with a
cane or a little bit slowertype of thing.

Speaker 3 (13:51):
And that's good.
Yeah, so there is one morething that we did that evening.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
What did you do that night?

Speaker 3 (13:57):
After everything was said and done, we went to dinner
.
I said let's go explore.
So I took everybody, almost theentire gang, and I found this,
of course, irish pub calledHitler's, hitler's Hitler's bar,
yep, and they had live musicand bartenders.
It's a small little place.
So when I walked in with 20people they kind of dropped

(14:20):
their jaw a little bit Right.
And you do it again.
I walked in with the gang andkind of dropped their jaw a
little bit Right, and you do itagain.
I walked in with a gang andkind of dropped their jaw a
little bit.
Of course everybody was justlike what is this?
It was great, it was wonderful.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's always good to do that, to get out in the
public and away from stuff, andyou learn so much more.
People talk to you.
You have such great time yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
That's part of traveling, yeah, and traveling,
yeah.
And then I found out talking tothe bartender that down in the
basement was haunted.
So I said can we get a tour?
And he said yes, so he's downto the basement.
Did you see any ghosts whileyou were there?
I did not, but a couple peopleswear they did.
Okay, I did not, but a couplepeople swear they, but they.

(15:02):
It was a haunted story about awoman who actually lived there
and how she was accused ofwitchery and witchcraft.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
And she was taken.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
And then she was not beheaded or anything like that,
but her housemaid.
What they took her housemaidand they had to, they wanted to
make, they wanted to say, okay,we can't have this.
So, they didn't want to killthe woman who lived there, who
was a very well-known woman, sothey ended up killing her
housemaid, and apparently it'shaunted by her and her housemaid

(15:32):
.
Oh, so they're both together.
Yeah, they're both togetherthere, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
I remember talking I believe it was to you a while
ago where somebody actuallywanted to do like a haunted tour
of Ireland.
Was that you?
Somebody actually wanted to dolike a haunted tour of Ireland,
was that you?
Yes, so Celtic tours can dothat.
Yes, I love that.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
We did a Halloween tour last year and then
incorporated for some of ourclients.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
The hauntings.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, how fun.
Yeah, it was a great experience.
Of course, derry has an amazingHalloween spectacular.
It's like four days celebrationfor Halloween.
Halloween, that's whereHalloween started, right?

Speaker 2 (16:09):
that's the start of Halloween.
How cool is that?
That if somebody wants to findall the local hauntings
literally yeah, they canactually say, okay, I want to do
the local hauntings, and theirtravel agents can contact Celtic
Tours and say put thingstogether for us and they will
put it together.
Yep, even the travel agents canget you know.

(16:31):
Okay, tell me what I can needto do and Celtic Tours helps and
guides them through that.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Our team is just amazing.
They are so well-versed ineverything that we offer and so
well-educated Some of them havebeen over there and most of our
team has been one boss for quitesome time we can put together
almost anything that the client.
That's nice.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah, that's really nice.
Now you have a website, we do,and the website is, it's
teltictourscom.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
Wwwteltictourscom.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Very, very easy and they can explore a lot of the
different things that arealready on there.
Yeah, and if they havequestions, they can contact
Hilted Tours or they can contacttheir travel advisors.
Yep, and the travel advisorscan say okay, what do you need,
what do you want, what can I puttogether for you and get you on
these amazing tours?
Now, this is just day two, Iknow, and Kilkenny that's not a

(17:23):
big city.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
It too, I know.
And Kilkenny, that's not a bigcity.
It's not a big city.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, it really isn't .

Speaker 3 (17:27):
No, not at all.
But there was again so much tosee and again, by day two, I was
exhausted.
Right, you keep running, I keepgoing.
But you know it always helpswhen you end your day in an
Irish pub with a good Guinness,black and black, Black and black
, which you said is Blackcurrant Right and Guinness and

(17:48):
Guinness yes, and all yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
I haven't tried it yet.
I haven't tried it.
One day.
I asked one of the local pubsabout that and they looked at me
like I had 12 head.
I'm going to have to go toIreland to get it.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
It's really funny because I would did the same
thing, because that's all Idrank the entire time.
Sometimes I would go in and askfor a black and black and
they'd look at me and, uh, I'mlike black, oh oh, black in
black.
I'm like okay, maybe I'm sayingit wrong, so it might be a
black in black.
Yeah, like that of the blackcarmine yeah so, and a couple of
places did put it on the sidefor me, which was very nice, um,
because then you can make it assweet as you want, and I don't
like it real sweet, I just.
I like it take the bitternessout of the goodness.
So now this is week two.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, I'm seeing my travel podcast and following
Diana from Celtic Tours aroundIreland.
Can you give us a kind of ahint on day three for next week?

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Well, a little hint, let me see.
Well, we went to Waterford.
Oh, little hints, let me see.
Well, we went to Waterford.
Oh, everybody knows what's inWaterford, yep, so I'll be
sharing a little bit about that.
We also went to Coe, coe, coe,yep, yep, and Corf, oh and Corf,
yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
All in one day, wow, wow.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
And I'll tell you that in Coe it is actually
called Cove now.
However, it used to be calledQueenstown, and if anybody knows
what Queenstown is, it's whereall of the ships from the
immigrants departed from,including the.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Titanic, including the Titanic, that's where it
started from.
Okay, so I can't wait to nextweek, when we'll talk to you
again for day three of yourIreland tour.
Diana from Celtic Tours, thankyou very much for joining me,
and now I'm going to have to go.
That's all there is to it,thank you so much for having me

(19:42):
again.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Well, that's it for today's episode of the Z
Michelson Travel Podcast.
I hope you enjoyed our journeyand found some new inspiration
for your next adventure.
Remember, the world is full ofstories and sometimes all it
takes is a plane ticket to startyour own adventure.
If you loved today's episode,be sure to tune in every week

(20:11):
and don't forget to share yourfavorite travel moments with me
on social media.
I'd really love to hear aboutwhere you're headed to next.
So, until next time, keepexploring, keep discovering and,
as always, keep traveling withyour heart wide open.
I'm Zee Michelson and I'll seeyou on the next adventure.