in the hills

 Slip past the gate and briefly enter the private property of the power station. Follow the well-trodden path back down to the river again, and walk up the long ramp to the crown of the dyke. It is a long straight deep channel leading to the power plant. In the distance, a small bus approaches, going at just over walking speed. The driver is talking on his ' phone There is probably work being done farther on down the canal.

A little farther on a large earth moving machine approaches, closely followed by a heavy truck of the sort uses on big building sites. Conjecture that they have all finished their shifts and are going home.

The guidance system on the mobile 'phone keeps on saying "return to the route". The system is trying to make it's hapless user walk along the trunk road. This is not pleasant and certainly not a good idea. So ignore the data until the system catches on.

The walk to the doctor's practice takes nearly two hours. It would have been twenty minutes faster along the main road, but that would just not have been nice. The doctor is pleased to see me, she has started a new practice out in the country, outside the town. Upon leaving, ask one of the receptionists for directions to the cross country path to Landshut which crosses the hills. She gives a complex description, with terrific enthusiasm,

Arrive in Landshut after dark, the pedometer in the phone tells me that the walk was all of twenty kilometres long.

But it was nice, up in the hills.