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Is there anywhere more boring than Gelsenkirchen?

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    Wandering off thread a little. My late, great friend, colleague and mentor used to say that New Mexico, where he lived most of his life, only had one, medium sized, butt ugly, dull town. They just moved it around occasionally and changed the name. Farmington, Gallup, Hobbs, Grants, Clovis, Los Lunas, Rio Rancho...

    No connection, of course, to our own esteemed Hobbs who I am sure is far from medium sized or butt ugly and never dull.

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      Occasionally wrong though.

      I add Hotdog, Jumpingfrog and Albuquerque to your list

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        Actually Belen, just south of Albuquerque, looks like a sprout of prefabs from the highway.

        We are all occasionally wrong.

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          Originally posted by Duncan Gardner View Post
          Occasionally wrong though.

          I add Hotdog, Jumpingfrog and Albuquerque to your list
          I've been to Alberquerque. It had a very good science museum, so that takes it out of the completely boring category.

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            Originally posted by Sporting View Post
            I've been to Alberquerque. It had a very good science museum, so that takes it out of the completely boring category.
            Was Alberquerque the center of Breaking Bad? If so: Fuck that.

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              Yes. "Breaking Bad" was filmed there.

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                Originally posted by adams house cat View Post
                Raleigh is indeed as dull as ditch water. So is Lodi although I never stayed there. A former colleague did and couldn't get out of town quick enough.
                I've been through Lodi too. The welcome sign announced it as "The Home of the John Birch Society." Which is probably all you need to know.

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                  Glad I didn't stay. I would have stood out like a nude at a funeral.

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                    On the plus side, Lodi does make some great wines. I’ve only ever stopped there once for a quick dinner at a very average bistro. So I can’t speak to whether it’s duller than, say, Andrews, Texas...but I didn’t see any evidence in its favour.

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                      Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                      I'm virtually certain that FIGS is referring to the Jeu de Balle, which isn't far from Midi/Zuid, but am again perplexed by Bored, as I can't recall a flea market in the Grande Place (though it has been 25 years since I lived in Bxl).
                      No, just for once, quell your perplexity, I think I was wrong and it was the Jeu de Balle from your picture.

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                        More than happy to stand down. Hope you can get some rest.

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                          Sorry, mate, that wasn't meant to come across as snarky as it did.

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                            No worries. I really didn’t take it that way.

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                              Originally posted by Belhaven View Post
                              I did find Raleigh, North Carolina less than eventful, certainly not much of a place for walking around or do any shopping.
                              Try Greensboro NC. The first place that I went to in the States...

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                                It's got a solid four block "downtown" now.

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                                  Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View Post
                                  Lens must be like this. City's population 31,398, club's average attendance last season 23,007 in a 37,705 capacity stadium. It's quite a nice place as well.
                                  Lens really reminded me of Middlesbrough, a small industrial town which would hardly be known at all but for it’s football club’s relative fame. I liked both places, mind - perhaps for that reason.

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                                    There are definite similarities, but Lens is emphatically an inland coal town, just as Middlesbrough is emphatically a petrochemical centre on an estuary.

                                    They were probably more similar in the late 19th century.

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                                      Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
                                      I once spent two nights in Charleroi. Everything on this thread so far sounds like Las Vegas.
                                      I found Charleroi far too terrifying to be boring, though I did arrive in the middle of a Friday night.

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                                        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                        There are definite similarities, but Lens is emphatically an inland coal town, just as Middlesbrough is emphatically a petrochemical centre on an estuary.

                                        They were probably more similar in the late 19th century.
                                        Yeah, Lens reminded me of a largish Welsh Valleys mining town - maybe Neath - with a fuck off massive football stadium and nicer pubs.

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                                          There's a hell of a lot of really interesting WW1 stuff in and near Lens if you look hard enough.

                                          One of which is that my great uncle was splattered in a hole there in 1918, about a kilometer from where the football ground now stands.

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                                            As a point of order, Middlesbrough is more of a big industrial town and the centre of an urban area of about 350000 inhabitants, more if you hoy in Pools and Darlo.

                                            Anyhoo, I am really here to mention that episode three of the Art of Germany, currently on the iPlayer, has an interesting bit about the Kunstmuseum in Gelsenkirchen with a snippet of footage of 60s Gelsenkirchen. Looked a bit like 60s Middlesbrough.

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                                              I like Belgium generally and have considered a trip to Charleroi to do the post-industrial landscape tour

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                                                Originally posted by Logan Mountstuart View Post
                                                There's a hell of a lot of really interesting WW1 stuff in and near Lens if you look hard enough.

                                                One of which is that my great uncle was splattered in a hole there in 1918, about a kilometer from where the football ground now stands.
                                                Don't get me wrong, I warmed to Lens and would certainly like to go back there if I had the chance if only to see Lens at home.

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