Day 21 - Wednesday, August 10 - Returning home

Things went pretty smoothly most of the day, up at 6:00, breakfast at 6:30, leave hotel at 7:10, get on train at 7:20, arrive at airport at 7:40 and complete check-in, security and passport control by 8:40. We go on the train seconds before the door closed. It is an exceptionally smooth and fast ride with the speed up to 120mph for the middle of the trip. It probably takes 5 minutes to get up to speed and 5 minutes to slow down. The train goes right into the airport terminal so one just needs to take the escalator upstairs. The flight departed about on time and was pretty smooth although there was a strong headwind which reduce the ground-speed to only 480mph at times - it was about 525mph when the wind letup. We splurged on business class which is very pleasant with lie-flat seats, free beer/wine and food at least as good as any we had on our trip. The complications started when the plane landed. There was congestion which kept the plane from reaching the gate for a while. When I...