Day 41 ....... Dortmund to Lengerich .....108 km ......(total 3,352 km)

Not entirely sure what it is but you could see it from a fair ol way away as you headed north out of Dortmund . Surrounded as it was by drab brick building I am guessing either scientific or climatic research. 

In stark comparison to the ride into Dortmund the ride out was quite pleasant given that the first 10 km heading north the route was mostly dedicated cycle paths. As the city disappeared the countryside opened up to vast expanses of open fields given over to agricultural needs or industry. The rollercoaster ride that was yesterday in terms of valleys and hills was clearly behind me and the flat terrain was a welcome delight. With the sun warming my back and the customary headwind barely strong enough to turn the wind turbines it made a good case for potentially being a good cycling day. 

Unlike yesterday my route also took me along  country roads which whilst not entirely devoid of cars nonetheless we were relatively light traffic wise. 

A proper “grown ups “ house .

On the outskirts of Münster I cycled by and then stopped to speak to this delightful man. Meet Ulrich Winkens. He runs a small and very well organised bike shop In Münster Mecklenbeck and after discussing the continuing issue of my slipping gears he took the bike for a prolonged ride. Appears the gear cable is either stretched and unable to maintain the necessary tension or perhaps it just needed a spray with Ulrichs “special” can of wonder lubricant. Given replacing a stretched cable would take some time to replace we opted for the “special” can idea. A liberal spray  around the tensioning nuts on the cable seemed to do the trick. 

Aforementioned “special can”.

This chap rode past and the conversation went like this 

Him - “germanspeak, germanspeak, gobble degobble, gobble degobble, germanspeak Nordkapp ? “ 

Me - (recognising the raised intonation at the end of his sentence and recognising just the single word “Nordkapp” I figured he had seen the back of my cycling Jersey and was asking me if I was cycling to Nordkapp ) Ja !

Him - Germanspeak (with wide smile and then held out his hand with the thumbs up sign of approval)

He is only the third person in over 3,300 km who has made comment of my trip after reading my Jersey. The first was a Swedish doctor in Tarifa on day 1 and the second a Norwegian retiree just south of Barcelona. 

For his recognition he gets a photo credit. 

I’ve always got time to stop and talk to a horse this goregeous. 

I had hair like that once 

Disbelieving ? 

Evidence .......

I sincerely hope they checked to ensure it was in neutral before they started working on it .