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Wednesday I got to work at 4:20 to be able to do my 9 hours required. At 7 I walked back across the street to the hotel where my wife and I stayed the night before. We had a nice breakfast and then she took my car and headed off to work.
It was sad to see her go. But, it was good not to have to figure out what to do with my car for six days too.

At 13:45 I walked from my office over to the train station and got there just as the train arrived.

I had expected a train into the city to be mostly empty. I had not realized there was a baseball game that afternoon. So, by the third stop the car I was in was full of college age people in Red Sox's outfits going to the game, cheering their team and complaining it was taking too long.

The train line I took was the one my father used to use while going to work for the first 10 years of my life. So, it went within walking distance of where I grew up.
I did see the supermarket where I worked while in High School. I remember watching the trains go by while I worked there.

I did not stop to see my mother or brother...

We got to Boston about 10 minutes late. I suspect the train had not taken into account a load of Sox fans any more than I had.

The busses from the train station run every 8 minutes. So, being 10 minutes late I had missed the one right after I got there. However, my actual schedule said I'd take the one 13 minutes after I got there, so it all worked out.
I had never taken the new bus to the airport. It was its own special tunnel to run under the city. But, it has to merge with the regular traffic to go under the harbor.

As we pulled into the first terminal, we came to a stop and everyone got up. Then, the driver shot forward again and hit the breaks, making several people fall. (This would turn out to be a theme of the trip.)
I decided it was better to walk from the first terminal to the last rather than go through that at all of the terminals.
As I got to my terminal, the bus did too. So, it only cost me some exercise, not time.

cosmicirony had beaten me to the airport and was already through security. We both had to check our bags as they were too large. But after lugging mine from the train station, I had no issue with that.

Our plane was ready and we only had a short wait until we could board.

Our seats were only 2 rows down from where we got on the plane, so we got seated quickly and without bother.

We took off on time and without any problem.

I had my "eye bra" and the recording of my wife snoring. As soon as we were off of the ground I applied both and did my best to sleep, even if it was several hours before my normal bedtime.
I'm not sure I really slept. It was hard for me to tell. There was a lot of noise on the plane as many families were there with young kids. And, they never turned the lights down, so I'm very happy I brought the "eye-bra" with me. So, I can't really say how much sleep I got, but I got far more rest than I would have without those things.

I did peak out several times of the trip and saw we were making very good progress.
We had a very strong tailwind so actually landed in Dublin an hour sooner than expected.
When we landed, we made a nice smooth landing and then the pilot jammed on the brakes like I've never seen done before. Everyone was jerked to the front of the plane strongly.
"That's why we say to keep your seat belts on," the flight attendant said.

We were still and hour or more early. This gave us far more time in the shopping mall that is the Dublin terminal than expected.

When we arrived our flight to Wales said Gate 412. Then it switched to "waiting for gate". Then, "gate opens at 5:35."

Finally at 5:35 it said 412.

cosmicirony walked there and it said "final boarding notice".
Although there was almost an hour until the scheduled take off time, this worried us. But, the three men at the gate entrance, which actually said 402 not 412, assured us we were still OK.
They had us go down stairs to another gate called 404 to wait.