Is there anywhere more boring than Gelsenkirchen?

[Wouter D]

Sorry Wouter I forgot. It was many years ago but that brick central shopping plaza area is bloody dull, and everything else seemed to be Philips.

They're trying to breathe some new life into it now, by converting some of the old Philips factories into all kinds of hipster hangouts. Some of those are not entirely unsuccessful. But still, the city is quite boring, although maybe not exactly Gelsenkirchen levels of boring. And, as LM points out, it is not even close to being the most boring city in the Netherlands.

[ursus arctos]

Stuttgart is dull compared to Köln , Düsseldorf or even Frankfurt, but isn't close to the "likes of Gelsenkirchen".

I'm all for "Keeping Brussels Secret", but robbing visitors is more than one step too far.

[ursus arctos]

Weil am Rhein has an important contemporary art museum, but the only reason anyone lives there is to save on taxes.

And you get to Basel on the tram.

[Wouter D]

Not quite as boring as the towns mentioned so far perhaps but laughably called the most liveable city in the world is Vienna. It's got the best hat shop in the world and a funfair reminiscent of Scooby Doo but, aside from that, it is a boring Newport. It isn't even the nicest or second nicest city on the Danube.

Vienna is far from boring. But its city center is. This center is basically an open-air museum which is as dead as a dodo after six. But there is lots of fun to be had in the band of districts just outside of the Innere Stadt.

[ursus arctos]

I had yet to realise just how fortunate I am not to ever have gone on holiday with Bored.

[Lang Spoon]

Aberdeen is a bit shit for a city of 200 odd thousand. Maybe being a once boom town killed any charm. The smaller and poorer Dundee has way more going on.

[treibeis]

One of my regulars is from Gelsenkirchen. He has everything the media leads you to believe people from Gelsenkirchen should have: the accent, the loud voice, the Eastern European surname, the Schalke shirt, everything.

When I was new here, I asked him whether everybody in Gelsenkirchen was a Schalke fan. He said, "The only ones who aren't are mentally handicapped or from Dortmund. Which is one and the same."

I didn't offer a sarky retort, as I thought he might punch me. Since then, we've often discussed who could have whom in a fight between the two of us. He reckons he'd win because he's five years younger than me "and comes from Gelsenkirchen".

[Aitch]

Hang about, Weil am Rhein has got the Vitra Design Museum: https://www.design-museum.de/de/informationen.html.

[elguapo4]

I had to spend a night in LeHavre when the ferry was out of commission and they had to send a replacement from Ireland, that is one boring town

[ursus arctos]

Excellent call, though I am told that it was different before the war.

[Logan Mountstuart]

Le Havre's definitely not fun. But it's got fantastic, post bombing, Stalinist boulevards. See also St. Nazaire and Best.

Calais, now that is a shit hole.

[treibeis]

If you're having Weil am Rhein, then I'm having Neumünster, as it's more than twice the size.

I had to change trains there once, which entailed a two-hour wait. I wandered around a bit and ended up asking a local where the town centre was. "There isn't one", he said.

The only thing being advertised on posters in Neumünster was a new clothes shop that had opened up on the edge of town.

[Logan Mountstuart]

Brest, not Best. Although, as an Eindhoven dormitory town, I suppose Best could qualify too.

[Wouter D]

Brest, not Best. Although, as an Eindhoven dormitory town, I suppose Best could qualify too.

Too small to qualify, perhaps.

There is a separate highway exit to Best West, for no apparent reason.

[WOM]

Question....what do people mean by boring? Like...every town has shops, pubs and movie theaters. But those aren't really meant to appeal to visitors, per se.

So, do they really mean ugly? Because even towns without much to do are good for walking around if they're pretty / old / quaint.

[Gangster Octopus]

Still no mention of Phoenix?

[ursus arctos]

I hate it with a passion, but there are people who love it, and it is great for baseball spring training.

In many ways, it is the largest example of the "deadly dull exurb" phenomenon I noted above.

[ursus arctos]

WOM has never been to Gelsenkirchen

[JVL]

Hang about, Weil am Rhein has got the Vitra Design Museum: https://www.design-museum.de/de/informationen.html.

Had totally forgotten about that... never made it there myself, the closest I got was taking a look at the giant chair in the centre of the roundabout that greets you when arriving from Basel by road. "Weil am Rhein, Stadt der Stühle". Welcome to Stool Town isn't quite so catchy in English.

[Ray de Galles]

Ursus, I would've been happy to do the Porsche and Merc museums, but Mrs TrL would've been bored silly. We did have a wander through the park to be honest, and found a couple of decent Brauhauses, but it still felt a bit... lacking, compared to the likes of Koln, Dusseldorf, even Frankfurt.

I’ve got two evenings and a day to kill in Frankfurt next week and if the Groundhopper app hadn’t thrown up a couple of games to go to I’d be bereft.

I once spent a four day Easter weekend in Stuttgart and the main attraction seemed to be the German language version of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ in an venue attached to my hotel that everyone else staying there seemed to be attending. Nowadays, I’d probably get a ticket to kill some time, as it was I saw Rudi Voller score a hat trick for Leverkeusen (who still lost 4-3) and get in a ruck with Thomas Berthold.

Brussels is a nice city, almost as nice as Belgium itself.

[Gangster Octopus]

Who mentioned Brussels? That's hobbesian...

[WOM]

WOM has never been to Gelsenkirchen

Frankly, I'm intent on going now.

[ursus arctos]

Talk about hobbesian . . .

[seand]

Strangely I've direct experience of most of the towns mentioned up thread. I spent almost a year working in Maidenhead and it gets my vote for dullness- put it this way I travelled to Reading for kicks. Well for football and shopping. At least it's a short train ride from London.
I have a soft spot for Gelsenkirchen, despite the obvious crapness of the place. I was there for Argentina-Serbia in 2006 having taken an overnight train from Munich via Frankfurt. I get the impression that spending just 8-10 hours in the city while a thoroughly entertaining Argentina and its fans are tearing it up helps.
I had a weekend in Brussels and found it rather marvelous. It's not exactly Brugge but it's full or little shops, bars and cafes, and interesting architecture and squares. And I almost went to a stag in Eindhoven- the danger of cheap Ryanair flights. PSV were away that weekend though, so I passed.

[adams house cat]

Des Moines
Carmarthen
Grantham
Tucumcari
Biloxi
Henley-on-Thames