no need for more

In the afternoon take the car for a spin, it is uncomfortable and cold outside. The outside temperature indicator in the car says that it is zero degrees centigrade. The air is damp and chilly. With the installation of the new battery the car starts well,  but there is no real assurance that it will continue to work for a long time. With luck it will hold for another five years before further major maintenance is due,

Leave the town, admire the rainswept landscape of Niedebayern,  all the farmhouses caught in the dreary weather, the grey sky and the dreary wet landscape. There are boy racers on the roads today, in a hurry for nothing else but the sake and the thrill of driving fast. Let them pass, they may pay their own fines.

Pass the reactor which is busily steaming away to itself. It will finally be turned off in a few months time, it is now steaming its last breath. There is political activity to keep it going, but the general idea seems to be that it will be shut down. It is a large structure, with an enormous grey cooling tower.

Drive on, more or less aimlessly. At a town called Niederviehbach cross the river and head on. Stop at a petrol station to fill the car's tank, and have a cup of coffee and a doughnut.

On the return stretch take the motorway. Decide on an impulse to test the mechanics work and put the foot down so that the accelerator is depressed all the way.

The car reaches a speed of two hundred and ten kilometres an hour, and that is enough, decide not to test any further even though it appears to be possible to go even faster. That speed is high enough, there is no need for more.

Slow down to a civilised pace, and watch the fuel consumption indicator drop,