Zee Michaelson Travel
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Zee Michaelson Travel
Diana's Celtic Tour Adventure comes to a Close
Welcome to the Z Michelson Travel Podcast, where every journey is a story waiting to be told. I'm your host, z Michelson, and I'm so excited to take you on a ride through the world's most incredible destinations, hidden gems and unforgettable experiences. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting to plan your next getaway, you're in the right place. Each episode, we'll be diving into everything from must-see landmarks to off-the-beaten-path treasures, speaking with locals and travel experts and sharing stories that will inspire your next adventure. So sit back, relax and let's wander the world together, one destination at a time. Are you ready? Let's get started.
Speaker 2:This is Z Michelson again, and I am here with Diana from Celtic Tours, and today is day six. This is her last day in Ireland. I'm so sad. I know it's a sad, sad day, but we have a lot of stuff we're going to be doing today, aren't we? So, diana, tell me, where are we going now?
Speaker 3:Well, we've left the morning and we started heading back to the capital city of Dublin.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, so we went east. Okay, yeah, so that's going basically across the whole island, across the island.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it takes about probably about two hours maybe you know, to pay on the traffic and the route you take, you know Right. So we decided to make a stop along the way, of course, because you can't you know, just go all the way.
Speaker 2:Now I do have to ask a question when you get up and you're getting on the buses, how early in the morning are you moving?
Speaker 3:You know it really isn't too early because we did have breakfast. Breakfast is included every day, oh fabulous. So I probably got up about 6.37, which is my normal time to get up and I got cleaned up and met everybody for breakfast at you know, 8 o'clock or so and we were out the door by nothing. And again, you put your bags out there. You don't have to, you know. You just close your suitcase, you put your bag out by the door and Vicki takes them, picks them up and puts them back on the motor coaster for you.
Speaker 3:I like that, I like that a lot Now our typical tours we actually do, and most of our tours now this is a very, very fast-paced tour. Right, because we were trying to see a lot. Right, but most of our tours we do try to stay two nights in each location. That's right. Yeah, because we don't want people constantly having to move.
Speaker 2:So we do try to stay two nights. So you do have some more active traveling and you have a little less active traveling. So you have choices, which is nice. People need to know that Some people get crazy.
Speaker 3:Oh no, I don't want to go on a tour because it's going to be too rushed. But you don't. You can make your choices Right and you know, I kind of call a tour like this an escorted tour, like land cruising.
Speaker 2:Land cruising. Yeah, that's kind of what I call it Land cruising.
Speaker 3:I actually stole that from somebody, I think I know who but, I don't know. So, which is really nice, because that's exactly what it is. It's, yes, you're kind of living out of your suitcase because you can't unpack everything, but I mean you're in a dress, casual anyway. It's not like you have to bring anything formal because you don't have any formal evenings or anything like that, like you would on a cruise. You know it's very casual. It's a very casual environment.
Speaker 2:Right, ireland is more casual. Yeah, yes, which is good, which is good. And again, you did a lot of walking, yeah we did.
Speaker 3:Actually, this day wasn't too bad, the last day wasn't too bad, but, yeah, you did some walking. And again, if you don't want to do the tour, you don't want to go some places you don't have to, you just kick back, you just kick back. Yeah, I've had people actually say you know what, I'm not going to go on the tour and I'm just going to walk around a little bit in the area and, of course, absolutely Enjoy vacation.
Speaker 2:That's nice, yeah, and you know I hate to tell people this, but you have to realize there's a whole different atmosphere in the pubs over there. Yeah, and you go, and you know you go and get a pint. You don't sit there and be waiting it on. Right, it's a little different, it is, yep, but once you're there and you go and you picked up your pipe from the bartender and you sit down at a table, a lot of people like to chat with you.
Speaker 3:Oh, the people over there are so friendly. And so I mean I've heard stories from some of the locals.
Speaker 2:I know I love it, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I heard a story when I was in Sean's bar. I said you know how do you say it? Do you say Celtic or Celtic? Well, 45 minutes later you know the gentleman who was a regular there at Sean's Bar, who was a local in Apollon, and he kind of gave me the history of Celtic and Celtic.
Speaker 2:And we don't care how you say it, you know just say it as long as you come visit, as long as you come visit exactly. So now you're on the bus and you're heading from Galloway. You're heading over towards Dublin, yep, but you made a pit stop along the way.
Speaker 3:We did we did. So we stopped in Newbridge. It's a town right outside of Dublin Well, not far from Dublin actually and we stopped at the Newbridge Silverware Factory.
Speaker 2:Silverware Factory.
Speaker 3:Yeah, silverware.
Speaker 2:So I mean they've been around goodness a long time, I think I went there a long long time, A long time.
Speaker 3:I think it was a long long time. I think it was actually in 1931 is when they originally started, and all they did was silverware. That's all they did. It was just silverware.
Speaker 2:And when you say silverware, like folks' knives, flatware, okay, flatware, just that, just flatware. That's what they started with.
Speaker 3:Oh that's what they started with, that's what they started with was just flatware and then they kind of evolved from there, you know, as the times, as more and more people you know, especially when people stopped buying silverware.
Speaker 3:You know, silverware sets and things like that. They had to kind of evolve. So we did a whole factory tour where they showed us exactly how they make the flatware. We did a whole factory tour where they showed us exactly how they make the flatware. And then what they do is they take, after they press the flatware, they take the leftovers from the flatware and make jewelry from it. Oh okay, so that's where silver jewelry came from. So when you walked into the factory and that day we walked in the factory was again pleasant surprise, because everything was 50 to 70 percent- they had their annual sale.
Speaker 1:You must have liked that, you know me the shopper, so I had to buy something.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it was just really, really amazing. You can do the tour, you walk through, do the tour. Again, that was included for our guests, no additional cost or anything. And as we walked through the tour and he told us all about the factory and we learned all about the company and the making of silverware and the jewelry. He got us through the entire process.
Speaker 2:Again, it's very nice that you have you get to see it firsthand Something that when I was younger I always thought when I got married I'm going to have a silverware set, because my aunt had one and I loved the big box that it came in and it was all velvet lined and we had the silverware in there. So this sounds like something that they did, yes.
Speaker 3:Yes, and of course now it's not entirely silver.
Speaker 1:You know, back then it was entirely silver.
Speaker 3:And now, of course, it is silver plated.
Speaker 1:Right, flatware, flatware, exactly.
Speaker 3:So it was really, really interesting just to see that you're walking through the factories telling you exactly how everything's made, showing you what the machines that they use and all of that, and they were melting the silver in front of you, yeah they actually take some of the stuff and melt it and flatten it. Yeah, it was very, very, very interesting, very interesting. Yeah, again, it was, like you know, a silverware factory. Okay, okay. Well, again, you know walking into a big sale you know, that was always really nice.
Speaker 3:But I can tell you the most extraordinary thing about this place, about the New Bridge Silverware Factory, is they. After the tour we found out they had a museum. A museum attached to it Upstairs, upstairs, Wow. So the owner wanted to bring a little bit more as a marketing idea. He wanted people to see what they had to offer you know as far as you know, especially when they started going into the jewelry. So he went ahead and bought Audrey Hepburn's original black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Speaker 2:And she was so tiny, did the dress look tiny, so tiny?
Speaker 3:So tiny and it was beautiful. So he kind of thought if he had this piece people would want to come to the factory.
Speaker 1:They'd want to see it.
Speaker 3:Well, I think they created a monster after that.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 3:Because after that he just started buying more and more different pieces, wardrobe pieces from different celebrities. So he has an entire museum of wardrobe pieces from all these celebrities.
Speaker 2:So name a few of the celebrities. Elizabeth Taylor, oh, elizabeth Taylor.
Speaker 3:Four or five different dresses, including some from Cleopatra. Oh, Beautiful, beautiful dresses. They actually had the now when Princess Diana got married. Not a lot of people know this, but they actually had seven dresses that were being made. Oh right, Because they didn't want the press to see Right, know this, that they actually had seven dresses that were being made for her.
Speaker 2:Oh right, because they didn't want the press to see, right, so it was a surprise what she was going to wear and she picked it the day of the wedding.
Speaker 3:Right, she picked the dress. So there is one of the seven dresses. Oh, wow, there as well One of Princess Diana's seven dresses. Yes, along with some of the sculptures from the designer of all the bridesmaids and the flower girl dresses, and it was just beautiful, beautiful. They had a Queen Elizabeth suit, which one From Queen Elizabeth yeah it was just a blue suit, but they showed the picture of her actually wearing the suit, yeah, so it was fascinating. Oh, I Dream of Jeannie bottle the original bottle from I Dream of Jeannie.
Speaker 2:Oh, how cool is that.
Speaker 3:He made a beautiful setting where the bottle sits. It says I Dream of.
Speaker 2:Jeannie.
Speaker 3:So it was just. It was a pleasant surprise. You would never think that this museum would be in a silverware factory right, right.
Speaker 2:It's almost like Hollywood comes to the silverware factory.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was just such a pleasant surprise. And then there was one more surprise at the end they actually bring out a piece for us to actually see up close, because everything's behind glass.
Speaker 2:Obviously you don't want people touching all these pieces, right, you don't want to touch it.
Speaker 3:So they actually brought out a dress and they, you know he had a little white, you know cloth and he says we bring, we brought this out just especially for you, right, which made us feel special, you know. I don't know if he did, but so he opens the curtain and it was Princess Diana's black dress that she wore. They called it the revenge dress Revenge dress.
Speaker 2:That was after she divorced. It was.
Speaker 3:And she was still a princess, and of course a princess can't wear anything that's off the shoulder, Right, you know she was. You know, Princess Diana, You've got a certain look right. Well, not with this dress, it was off the shoulder a little low, cut above the knee with a slit in it. You know she actually danced with John Travolta in this dress.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:I've seen pictures of that oh my goodness, I'm still talking about it getting goosebumps because I stood can't touch it, but I stood right next to it. Right next to it, right next to it, and it was just an amazing, amazing experience to know that dress.
Speaker 2:She looked very petite at the time, was it? It's very petite.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very petite dress yeah.
Speaker 2:I have no idea what size Was it?
Speaker 3:like a velvet.
Speaker 2:Was it like a velvet dress? No, it was just a cloth dress, just a cloth dress, just a cloth dress. It had that shine to it.
Speaker 3:Yes, whoever designed the dress?
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I can't remember who did it, but just, it was a beautiful, beautiful again, just goosebumps standing next to it. I tried to get as close as I could next to it without even touching it, you know. It's like so, because my name is Diana.
Speaker 1:So it was kind of like oh you know, it was just amazing, amazing.
Speaker 3:I got tears in my eyes.
Speaker 2:So and this was all part of the New Bridge silverware factory.
Speaker 3:Yes, so this was a separate part of their factory. Yeah, it's a museum that they actually have. I wonder how much more he's going to be adding on to that.
Speaker 2:I don't know but I can't wait to go back. I know I can't wait to go back. Yeah, because it sounds like he's with the I Dream of Jeannie battle.
Speaker 3:It sounds like he's going after some other types of things that will really draw in the crowds and I took so many pictures and I would say that there were probably at least 30 to 40 pieces there. Wow, some pieces. So his collection is getting quite big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's getting bigger and bigger. So another year I bet you it'll be probably about 45 to 50. I'm sure, I'm sure. So now you spend time at the factory and time at the museum. What's next?
Speaker 3:Well, we had afternoon tea, High tea, where there? Oh, in the museum. No, downstairs, they have a little restaurant area and they gave us afternoon tea with some bubbly champagne, nice, and little sandwiches and, of course, pastries, and it was so good. So, that was a nice kind of afternoon visit. Yeah, and again, this is something that we include in our tours.
Speaker 2:I love that Celtic tours includes all of these things. And you had already said, every morning is breakfast.
Speaker 3:Yeah, every morning is breakfast.
Speaker 2:So fill up our breakfast and then you got all these different things going on and you get these teas included.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you, you don't go hungry. That's good, you do not go hungry at all. Even if you don't purchase one meal, you're still not going to go hungry. Between the lunches and the breakfasts and the dinners, you'll never go hungry.
Speaker 2:Well, that's good, so now you have your afternoon tea.
Speaker 3:Yep, and we headed back on the motor coach and we headed for Dublin, okay, where we stopped at the Epic Museum, okay. So now you've come full circle. We have, we've come full circle, right. So you left Dublin and now you're back in Dublin. So we again, when we originally started on day one, we started in Dublin and went down south and then came up on the west coast there and then went right across. So we did kind of what we call the heart of Ireland.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Because everybody knows about these areas Waterford and the Cliffs of Moher.
Speaker 2:Right Larney.
Speaker 3:Castle.
Speaker 1:Larney.
Speaker 3:Castle exactly. So we kind of call that the heart of Ireland, which is one of our tours, the heart of Ireland.
Speaker 2:The heart of Ireland. It's a six-night, yeah yeah, and, like I said, it's a nice amount of visiting. I mean, we can do more. And this gives you a nice sampling of what's to come. Yeah, that, and this gives you a nice sampling of what's to come, yeah, that's great. So now you went to this epic museum.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the epic museum. The epic museum is an actual immigrant museum and we did have a guided tour, which was nice. It was nice With 30 people going through the epic museum. I would have liked to have done a self-tour, because you can do a self-tour, you can even go with a guide and hire a guide if you'd like. Where?
Speaker 3:you can just go ahead and get a ticket and go through it yourself. But it talks about again all of the migration from Ireland to all the different parts of the world and again it talks about the potato famine it goes into it's a beautiful museum, the Heritage Museum, which I think I talked about in one of the last. Yes, it's an older museum and it talks about the immigrants leaving that area Right and going from that port.
Speaker 3:And then this one is a little more modern and it tells you a little bit more, not just about the history, but everything that the immigrants had to go through Right During that tour. And I Very, very modern Again, you can do it on your own. It's a self-paced tour.
Speaker 3:Or you can do it with a tour guide. So is this a big place? It is. It's actually quite large, okay, wow, and very interactive as well. Oh, is it's actually quite large? Okay, wow, and very interactive as well? Oh, interactive, it's very interactive. They have a trivia, they have all kinds of stuff, so it's very, very interactive.
Speaker 2:I'm a big trivia buff.
Speaker 3:I love to play trivia.
Speaker 2:So you went to this museum and that probably took a few hours.
Speaker 3:It took over an hour, over an hour. And in that area, in that Epic Museum area, of course, they have some shops, oh you know, shopping. So, they did have some shops where you can go shopping. They have restrooms and things like that. So it's a little area where you can explore if you want to. So even if you get done with the tour early, you can still spend at least another you know, half hour to an hour just exploring the area.
Speaker 2:Now your particular tour group that you were with was roughly about 30 people, correct, okay. Is that the average size of the groups?
Speaker 3:No, not at all. This was an exception. Again, this was just a special tour that we put together, but typically all of our escorted tours are anywhere from 24 to 28 people. Okay, our Heart of Ireland. We will do 32, just because it's a very, very popular tour. It's a six-night tour, so it works out perfectly for a week-long vacation, right. So we will do 32, but we keep them on pretty small. We don't do more than that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is kind of nice, you know, because you're on a nice motor coach and people are more comfortable when it's that you know, when you're not that swashed.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, it's very comfortable. Yeah, it's not like you're sitting next to people, you don't? Know or anything you can actually, you know, spread out and have some room. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then, with everybody there, you all wind up getting to know each other very well because you're sharing this experience together and that makes it nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I will tell you, I've been on several tours, several tours, and I've always had people that I have made a difference. You know that I still keep in touch with them. Right, and one of the tours I did, we are actually scheduling a reunion, yeah. So we're inviting you know, everybody's going to one location and we're going to do a reunion, you know.
Speaker 1:A reunion tour? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Because we all just got along. You know that well.
Speaker 2:So it is very nice and again, Ireland is a very friendly country. People are friendly, they want to talk to you. Go and have a good time. Now we're leaving the Epic Museum. We are in Dublin at this point.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one of the things I also want to mention about the Epic Museum is you actually explore your heritage there? Oh, I mentioned that at the other place, but you can do that here at the Epic Museum as well. So if you don't make it to Cove, you know, to the Heritage Center there then you can do that here as well, at the Hosea of Dublin.
Speaker 2:Very nice. You know, a lot of people are looking into their ancestry, you know, and that's something that people need to know. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, I wanted to just mention that, but.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm sorry, I wanted to just mention that, but yes, after we left the Epic Museum, we headed to a hotel, again centrally located, which is nice, yeah, very nice.
Speaker 2:You're leaving the next day, so you want to be near everything, so you can just get up and go?
Speaker 3:Yep, so we were centrally located. We had a few hours, so some people went and took a nap because it's, you know, out the night before in Galway. So some of us went up and took a nap and others were able to explore a little bit, but then we all got together for a farewell dinner.
Speaker 2:That's nice. What did you have? Where did you go?
Speaker 3:We went to Mary Plowboys it's an Irish music pub kind of an entertainment place and we all got together and we had an amazing dinner and they offered all kinds of different meals. So I've got their last shepherd's pie. I had bacon and potatoes which is actually ham and mashed potatoes, yeah, so it was very good. And of course I had to have my Guinness before I leave. The black and black, the black and black, yeah, that's exactly what I had. And then they had this entertainment. And what's very nice about this place is the gentlemen who own it are the entertainers.
Speaker 2:Oh, fabulous, yeah, so they were musicians, so they were doing.
Speaker 3:Irish music, irish music, irish dancing, yep, and then they had some Irish dancers a little later on, and I'm sure they had some sort of— Right around dessert time —talk.
Speaker 2:I had some sort of talker too as well. I can't even imagine a pub without somebody telling a story or two.
Speaker 3:Oh, there were a lot of stories.
Speaker 2:Because the musicians told all kinds of stories.
Speaker 3:So it was a wonderful way to end our tour.
Speaker 2:That's nice. It's a wonderful way to end the tour. Now, the next day, everybody was leaving to get back on their planes and flights. Now does Celtic Tour bring them to the airport? Yes, yes, to get back on their planes and flights. Now. Does Celtic Tour bring them to the airport? Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:Your transfers are included.
Speaker 2:Transfers are included.
Speaker 3:Now we do have some people who would like to either stay a little bit longer or they want to go explore other areas. I had two people who went to Scotland, so they didn't do the transfer back to us, right, so they went ahead and stayed a little bit longer and then just took a cab to the airport and then they went to Scotland, because it wasn't until later on that evening. But again, those are all things that, since you're in Europe, you might as well go and explore.
Speaker 1:You've got the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you've got the time. Might as well, do it.
Speaker 2:And this is something else that Celtic tours can do. So if they did this six day, five night they could say well, you know, I want to do this.
Speaker 3:But I want to add Scotland in Yep. Celtic tours can accommodate for that. We can actually help them with that and we do have people who will do back-to-back tours, because we do tours in Scotland or we do tours in Wales or England. So we have people who will do one tour and then turn around and do another tour in another area, so they're getting a nice mix of everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very nice. Yes, so now your trip is over. Was it sad leaving? Yeah, the next morning.
Speaker 3:we had to get up a little early and we had to be out the door by 7 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2:Because that's when the bus brings everybody to the airport.
Speaker 1:Because that was the shuttle time for that. It's a shuttle time for that.
Speaker 3:So basically, what happens is we take a look at everybody's flight schedule, because it's only one shuttle, it's not like they keep going back and forth, back and forth.
Speaker 3:So it's only one shuttle, so we take a look at everybody's time frame and we kind of make it to where it's best for everybody. And again, if somebody does have to leave, I've had guests who had to leave, you know, at 3.30 in the morning, to be in the airport at 4.30 in the morning, right, because they took a six o'clock flight. I never knew that, but that's okay. So then you know they would have to get their own transportation for that, you know, because there was only one shuttle.
Speaker 2:Right, one shuttle leaves at this one particular time and then gets you to the airport.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was sad. We all said our good devise Right. So I was set up that evening and the next day and we were on our way With Celtic tours. Is it possible that if somebody wants everything included, they want to do this, they want to do that and they want airfare. Can Celtic tours work?
Speaker 2:with that, we can do the airfare with them as well. We can do airfare, which is great, yeah. So basically one-stop shopping it can be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Except when you go to the shops. Then you got to shop on your own. Yeah, I'm sorry, yeah.
Speaker 3:Shop, shop on your own. Shop on your own Some dinners when you go, because we do try to give free time, we don't want, you know again, we don't want everybody to feel that they have to be. You know, do what, exactly because there are some people who don't enjoy that.
Speaker 2:So we try to give free time as well. Right, so there's some free time. Midstan, you can wander on your own or just go back to the hotel room and take a nap Yep. Get ready for the nighttime fun Yep. So there's lots and lots of things that Celtic Tour can do. You can contact your travel advisor and say I want to do this with Celtic Tours. The travel advisor will contact Celtic Tours and say I have a client that wants to do this, this, this and this, and Celtic Tours will sit down with a travel advisor and say, okay, let's get this checked off, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And even if they don't know exactly what they want to do, let's say for example they look at one of our escorted tours. I'll do an escorted tour. We can actually help them plan the trip for them as well. You can go onto our website and take a look at our website and there's actually travel planners on there and the website is it's CelticTourscom. That's very easy, yeah very easy.
Speaker 2:We made it easy, Diana. I can't wait to hear about your next adventures with Celtic Tours and thank you again for joining me.
Speaker 3:No, thank you so much for having me. This has been so much fun.
Speaker 2:I'm going next time Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, that's it for today's episode of the Zee Michelson Travel Podcast. I hope you enjoyed our journey and found some new inspiration for your next adventure. New inspiration for your next adventure. Remember, the world is full of stories and sometimes all it takes is a plane ticket to start your own adventure. If you loved today's episode, be sure to tune in every week and don't forget to share your favorite travel moments with me on social media. I'd really love to hear about where you're headed to next. So until next time, keep exploring, keep discovering and, as always, keep traveling with your heart wide open. I'm Zee Michelson and I'll see you on the next adventure.