Hi Michele,

            We are planning a brief trip to Dublin in a couple of weeks, only 4 nights.  I want to order your book, but am afraid it will not arrive in time for my trip, so I decided to join the forum to see if you could answer the couple of questions that I have.  Where is the book mailed from, and how long might it take to get to a German address?

             We will arrive after 10:30 at night, so we plan to stay at the Bewley's Hotel near the Dublin Airport.  It is rather new, so we are hoping that it is nice.  Do you have any information about it---either personal or from others?  The main reason we chose this place is that it is close to the airport, and they have a shuttle that will pick us up. 

              Also, we plan to use public transportaion, since we will only be there for a few days.  My husband just doesn't want the hassle of parking, etc., not to mention having to adjust to driving on the left, rather than the right side. And again, the hotel has a complimetary shuttle to and from the airport, where we can catch another form of transportation, such as the bus, tram, or whatever is going our way.  We are considering a 3-day Freedom ticket, but may just opt for the daily family passes.  Being unfamiliar with Dublin, we are sure which is the better choice.  Do you have any recommendations about that?

               We also wanted to take a day tour to the Newgrange, but I don't think any public transporation goes out that far.  Can you recommend a company that has one?  Where do you catch the tour?  I have searched the internet and found a couple, but cannot determine where we will need to catch the tour.   This may have to wait for another trip, but we would really like to go there this trip, so if you know of anything, and at an affordable price, that would be great.  Hubby wanted to take a train there, but I cannot find information about reaching Newgrange via any for of public transportation, nor how far out that it might be once you arrive at the town closest to it.  Any help you can offer will be appreciated.

                Our second option for a day trip was to go another place north of the city, (like something we can do in a short time)  and that hopefully we could find a company that departed from the airport, thereby returning there in time for use to catch our evening flight. Need to be back to the Dublin airport by 4:30-5:00 for 6:30 flight.  I know that I am may be dreaming here on this one, but it is always possible.  Here in Germany, many travel companies have offices in or near the airport, so I thought that it could be possible.  Do you know of any?

                We will be travelling with our girls--ages 15 and 10.  The 10 year old loves horses, so we were hoping to incorporate some time of horse related activity in one day.  But not sure how to accomplish this using the buses, etc. either.  This may have to wait if we can't figure it out.

                 Thanks for your help.

                 Cindy