Today was a dry day ! There was a tough wind from the south but dry is always good. I had a hearty breakfast in the town centre and was off by 10am, you guessed it heading south into a 20mph wind. After 5 miles at Dingen I was glad the route turned slightly east and uphill into a forest all the way to Brunen at 9 miles - eve though it was uphill the forest afforded shelter from the wind and this would be a common theme all day - in the towns and forests I was sheltered but out in the open fields was tough.
From Brunen all the way to Dorsten at 25 miles and halfway was really good and it was only 12:30 - I contemplated a very early finish and a lunch possibly in Recklinghausen which would only leave me 10 miles to go. ..... However ....
At Dorsten it took a while to get across town through all the junctions and zebra crossings and as I left town the quiet road I was routed on was barriered off - the bridge across the Lippe looked like it had been washed away.
There was another bridge a mile away - i routed to that but the road was a major road and all the connecting roads went over it without joining it - I had to settle for a 7 mile diversion and into Marl.
I enered Marl via a chemical industrial estate with wagons everywhere and after dodging a few a cycle path eventually appeared. In town progress was again slow and I needed a bank, but having located one it refused to take my card, so another trek across town and an almost impossble bank inside a shopping centre eventually worked - I had more difficulty getting back on my original route and all in all it must have take nearly 2 hours to move about 5 miles on the original route. Luch turned into a snack and a bottle of orange at a Petrol station.
I had to get round Recklinghausen which looked a big town but my route took me around the south of it on an excellent cycle track and as I headed south towards the Rhine Herne canal I passed an old coal train by the side of the track and on the wall opposite lots of industrial murals. The track went down to the canal and a left turn took me 1 mile to a bridge where the road to Castrop forked. I was surprised to be out in open countryside and soon I passed the Schloss Bladenhorst which looked a bit run down but did look good in the autumn colours. From Castrop I somehow had managed to route myself the last 3 miles over a 400ft hill with a 10% gradient near the top and from there it was straight down a busy road to my hotel in LutgenDortmund which is about 7 miles west of the city centre.